Insanity
by Noel14
Summary: It seems to be the only thing I'm dealing with nowadays. IzayaxOCxShizuo. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: I never would have thought that taking this job would lead to such a drastic change in our lifestyle. Nor did I expect this new move to Ikebukuro to trigger so much insanity that it became the only thing I'm dealing with nowadays. Sometimes I really wish I hadn't met those two…**

**By: Noel14**

**OK, this is my fifth attempt at fanfiction and first try at writing for Durarara! I only started writing this about… eh, two or three days, after finishing the series (all in the short span of two days, too) because of how hard I fell in love with the show… or, more accurately, Shizuo and Izaya. Seriously, they flew right by Deidara (Naruto) and L (Death Note) on my list of Favorite Anime Characters of All Time.**

**Warning: Kind of serious first chapter, but only for character development and introductions. It's not always going to be this serious. ****Anyway, enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: I wished on a shooting star last night that I could own Durarara, but unfortunately, I don't. That's not to say that I mind owning Autumn and her family; I just wish I owned a little more than them, you know? I mean, it's a great show and I wish I was able to be that great and creative, but… Darn it, I'm rambling again! I really need to stop that… Well, I don't Durarara. Now, here you go!**

**The Last Noel Productions Presents:**

**Insanity**

**Chapter 1: The Marvelous Misadventures of Autumn and Aurora**

The moment I stepped off the plane to Tokyo with Aurora by my side, I had already silently told myself that my life would never be the same. The bombardment of new sights and smells upon my arrival to the first bus stop themselves were enough to tell me that much. Every little detail, for the concrete on the sidewalks to the bustling streets to the use of an actual car confirmed my thoughts that this would be entirely new to the both of us. And this scared me a bit. _Little Aurora in a place as big as this?_ I thought to myself. _Hopefully she'll be able to hang on here_.

But it must have been when I got off the bus and entered the Ikebukuro district that I realized just to what extent that change in my twenty-three year old life would go to.

It's strange, I always tell myself, how people can sometimes seem to see certain things coming just by the way things start out. It's kind of like when someone makes a hypothesis on a lab at school. We make predictions with every decision we ever make and every single thing that happens to us. These predictions can be correct or incorrect. A grown man can predict that a promotion mean more money to support his growing family. A six-year-old child could predict that a couple of balloons can defy the laws of gravity and lift you up in the air when you jump off you father's truck. And we make these predictions based on our gut instincts, our wandering minds, or common knowledge.

And my prediction, when I took my first step off the bus and into the Ikebukuro district was based on my gut instinct of protection. This prediction was "I shouldn't have brought Aurora here."

Aurora, being my ten-year-old little sister, wasn't ready for the large crowds that surrounded us, nor was she ready to face the large, numerous roads that were laid out in front of us and stuffed with cars. She definitely wasn't ready for second-hand smoking, either, which I then knew for sure would be a huge issue judging by the thick scent of smoke lingering in the air and all the people lining the street with a lit cigarette sticking out of their mouths.

My hair rose on the back of my neck as I watched all the people passing by and turned to Aurora abruptly. She was twirling a strand of her deep red hair in her fingers as something to entertain herself. She stared at the curling strand of hair with those bored crystal blue eyes of hers and stopped walking as soon as she noticed I had turned to her. "Hm?" She was asking what I wanted.

"I'm starting to have second thoughts about this move, Aurora," I told her, eyeing the people walking by me carefully, as if one might jump out at us at any moment. "I mean, this place looks like it could be dangerous for you. What if you get mugged while walking home from school or something? Or what if there's an earthquake and you get stuck under a big building and can't get out?" I know, I was being over-reactive; but this is the way my mind always reacts to these kinds of things, new things. The prospect of anything new always came off as potentially dangerous. And I wouldn't have minded this, though, had I not brought Aurora. And the more things I came up with, the more things came to mind. "Or what if there's some sort of mass murderer that gets a hold of you and takes you hostage? How about if some guy runs you over on his motorcycle? Or if some maniac goes around throwing large random objects and hits you?" I was even starting to scare myself now, even if Aurora didn't look concerned in the least. I just had to keep going. I mean, protecting her was sort of my job as her older sister, right? "Even worse, what if I get wrapped up in some sort of twisted scheme by accident and end up getting you involved, too? You could get hurt and this would be all my fault for dragging you into this! I mean, what if-"

"What if a boulder falls from the sky and drops on my head?" She asks sarcastically, raising an eyebrow at me as I lower my head in embarrassment. "I think I'll be fine, Autumn." Now she turned back to the bus we'd just exited. "Now are we going to get our bags out or not?"

"Oh, yeah," I muttered as the group of people around the baggage compartment cleared. Once the crowd had scattered, I swooped in to get our bags.

To be completely honest, I was nervous beyond belief. The only reason I moved here to Japan after six years of living with only Aurora is that I obtain most of my money from a part-time job and getting my writing published, a task proved difficult because as soon as most people realize I dropped out of my senior year of high school, they won't even bother to read my work.

Despite this, however, we'd been doing fairly well, especially since I managed to get two books, two of which I am very proud to have written within the past two years, published after much hard work, but recently, I've been losing a lot of the inspiration for my writing that I had been receiving plenty of before. Aurora and I both agreed that this was probably because of the small, unexciting town we were living in.

We both endured the same dreadfully boring schedule where we woke in the morning, Aurora went to school, I went to work at Target until about six, I come home to see Aurora waiting for me at the kitchen table, I nag her to study and do her homework, we eat, I write for about an hour or so, we go to bed, and repeat the process in the morning. I wanted something more than that, something different. I not only wanted an exciting life for myself, but one that wasn't so dull for my sister so that she might be able to grow up and tell her children and her children's children stories of her own, and not those kinds of stories that an old man tells children and they fall asleep in the middle of it. I want her to be able to tell exciting tales that will make their hairs stand on end and whine when she has to stop in the middle of it. But we couldn't have any of those experiences in the town we were living in.

Luckily for us, however, our uncle had been trying to get us to move to Japan with him ever since he married a Japanese model that he was doing a cover shoot for in Seattle. Hiromi is a surprisingly nice woman, nicer than what you'd expect a model to be like, and she's one of the most beautiful people I've ever met. She has long, silky black hair, a beautiful figure, and dark brown eyes that I would kill for; it was no wonder she was asked to model for pretty much every fashion magazine in Japan.

So, yes, Uncle Richie and Aunt Hiromi had plenty of living space that they were willing to share with the two of us, and, yes, they had the finances to support us, but, no, I wasn't just going to take advantage of their kindness. I was going to work, pay rent, and, when I'd saved enough money, I'd move off somewhere else. Twenty-three is too old to be living off of my aunt and uncle. Plus, it would make me feel guilty beyond belief if I leeched off of them like a baby does its mother.

I was carrying a total of three of my own bags and one of Aurora's when we were finished unloading our bags. I didn't have too many things other than clothes to bring with me unless you count my laptop and my lucky pen; the rest of my stuff I sold and added to the money I was saving for an apartment. Aurora didn't have too many personal belongings, either, so she only had her clothes and the blanket she's been sleeping with since she was a baby stuffed into two bags.

So, two bags slung over my shoulder and two suitcases on the ground next to me, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small slip of paper, the one with the address of the place we were supposed to be meeting our aunt and uncle on it, scanned over the words, and stuffed it back into the pocket that the paper was in only a moment ago. I gave Aurora a smile. "Are you hungry?" I asked her.

She just stared at me with her uninterested expression and gave a small shrug of the shoulders. "I guess," she muttered.

"Good," I told her. "Now, I need you to help me find Russia Sushi."

* * *

><p>We were utterly and hopelessly lost. It turns out that finding a Russian Sushi restaurant in Ikebukuro is like trying to find a nettle in a haystack, according to my aching arms and my watch, which says that we've been searching for Russia Sushi for about an hour now. We were actually supposed to meet Uncle Richie and Aunt Hiromi about thirty minutes ago, at six, so they're probably worried sick by now. Not to mention that I felt like we've been going around in circles for a while (wasn't that like the fifth time we'd seen a sign advertising that Baccano show?) and I felt as if my knees were going to give way under the weight of my four bags.<p>

Aurora suddenly jerked on the back of my shirt and I turned around to look at her. She said something but with the noise of the bustling street, I couldn't hear her, so I cocked the side of my head towards her and cuffed my ear. "Huh?" She repeated her previous statement, or question, to no avail. I asked her to repeat and again and when she still couldn't raise her voice to a volume loud enough for me to hear, I crossed my fingers and hoped it was a 'yes or no' question. "Uh… sure?" I'm just too tired at the moment to even bother. We need to find Russia Sushi soon.

My sister nodded at me and I turned back to look around, sighing a breath of relief. If I had said something wrong, questionable, or just plain weird, she either hadn't noticed or didn't want to point it out.

About another ten minutes into our search and I was beginning to seriously think that the ground below me was moving. I finally just sat down on some random bench by the side of the street, and let the suitcases drop to the ground while I sat there panting. "Sorry… Aurora," I apologized to my sister between deep breaths as I dropped my head between my knees, either in shame, tiredness, or both. "I just… need to rest some."

I received no response.

"Aurora?"

Everybody has at least one of those moments in their life where they fear the world may be coming to an end based on just one single event that strikes one of the worst fears within your heart and being. You could have felt the most terrorizing of things or emotions, heard agonizing sounds that will forever echo inside your mind, or see the most frightening sights that will flash before your eyes every chance it gets. And it was this experience that I was undergoing at this very moment, when I raised my head from my knees to snap at my sister for not replying to me. It was originally a snide intention that soon turned to a feeling of complete dread and horror that froze my blood and shut my mind and allowed all hell to break loose within it.

My sister wasn't there.

"Oh my God!" I shot up on both of my legs in an instant while trying to look over the sea of people. "Aurora!" I shouted over the noise to the best of my lungs' abilities. "Aurora!" I kept shouting her name but the sound of car horns, ringing cell phones, and talking people must have drowned out the noise because I didn't hear any voices shouting "Autumn!" back at me.

Frantically, I started pushing my way through the crowd, back the way I had come from, still calling out Aurora's name in desperation. Where was she? What happened? Was she kidnapped? This was all my fault, wasn't it? If my baby sister died today, then it would be all my fault and I'd never be able to live with myself. Never. "Aurora!"

"Are you alright, Ms.?" The voice must have been able to tell I spoke English from my use of 'r's that don't flip or something because this was the language it came to me in. **(1*)**

In relief that there was someone paying attention to my pleas for help, I turned around.

My relief was now completely washed away.

He was a black man that had to have been at least three times my size and he had one of the scariest faces I'd seen in my life. He had these big thick lips and weird, snake-shaped eyes that scared the living heck out of me. "Are you OK, Ms.?" He repeated. This time, I was able to catch his Russian accent. And the flyers advertising "Russia Sushi" he was holding. And let's not forget the big sushi restaurant standing behind him.

Strange how I find these things at the most inopportune of times, huh?

"Ms.!" The large man shook my shoulders and I realized I was crying, at the irony or the stress I wasn't quite sure, though. "Are you OK? Why you crying?"

I looked up at him, tried not to cringe at his intimidating appearance, and shook my head, knowing I was just judging a book by its cover; I of all people should know better than to do that. "I just arrived here about an hour ago with my little sister and I turned around and couldn't find her!" I wailed unintentionally while tears continued to stream down my face. "She probably got lost or mugged or something and it's all my fault for not paying attention to her!"

"Now, now," the Russian man said with a kind smile, patting my head. "It alright; tell Simon what this sister of yours looks like. Maybe I seen her."

I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand. "She's got bright blue eyes and red ponytails." I sniffled quickly. "She's about this tall," I held up my hand to the middle of my chest and the man nodded, closing his eyes and rubbing his chin.

"Ah, yes," he spoke in that accent of his, not yet opening his eyes yet. "I do believe I saw little redheaded girl with Masaomi-San only few moments ago." He opened his eyes and pointed in the opposite direction I had come from. "They go that way."

I gave the man the best grin I could handle at the moment. "Thank you, Mister!" I gave a bow- I think that was supposed to be a form of respect in Japanese, right?- and ran off in the direction he had pointed me out to, meanwhile, he called after me.

"When you find little sister, come to Russia Sushi! Sushi good for you!" I almost laughed out loud.

A cloak of happiness and relief found itself wrapped around me and gave a sense of warmth and security. The fact that a kind stranger had just pointed out where he had seen Aurora go gave me not only a lead as to where she was, but also hope that I might be able to find her in this big city. I guess the two of us dying our hair to a color as noticeable as red was a good move, after all.

I felt happy that I'd just found out what direction she had gone in when something dawned upon me. Who's Masaomi? _He better no be a pedophile_, I thought to myself in rage. _I swear, if Aurora was hurt, I'll_-

"IZAYA!" Suddenly, I heard a loud noise that sounded like clashing metal or something large and mechanical being torn from the ground. I looked at my surroundings and suddenly found everyone else, even the people in cars, had cleared the street that I was in and watched from the intersections at the ends of the streets apart from one other person.

This one other person was a man wearing a pair of shades and a bartender suit, had blonde hair, and was holding a vending machine in his hands as if it were nothing more than a bouncy ball while looking in my direction with pure malice.

And this is where the panic set in.

_Did I piss him off somehow? Was he mad because I, I don't know, bumped into him earlier and not notice him yell at me? Was he mad because something else pissed him off and he just decided to vent his anger out on me? _Then a sudden thought hit me._ Or was he mad because I dyed my hair red? I know that red is supposed to make bulls angry, but does it do the same thing to people? Maybe it does and my hair color just sent him off in a rampage and made him want to throw something big and heavy at me. Oh my God, what have I done? I should have never approved of Aurora dying her red, too. What if he sees her, too, and attacks her in a similar fashion? What if-_

Screaming profanities and interrupting my own mental babble, I ducked to the ground when the man's vending machine came flying my way. The large machine went sailing right above my head and hit the ground with the sickening sound of a large crash in only moments. "What was that for?" I screamed at the deranged man as the scent of smoke from the damaged vending machine came drifting to my nose.

Wait a minute. I think someone just said that at the same time as me. Of course, this other voice didn't sound as terrified as I was in the least, but it still said the exact same thing.

"I'm going to kill you!" I stared at the man in shock until I realized the other person I heard only a moment ago was speaking from behind me.

"Awe, surely you don't really mean that, Shizu-Chan~!" I just realized that this Shizu guy might have not even noticed I was there in his rage and that the flying vending machine wasn't aimed at me, but some guy standing only ten feet behind me. "I thought you were my friend!" There was no possible way that anyone could be this mocking in a situation where someone threw a large, bulking metal object in their direction and threatened to kill him.

Unless they're completely insane.

I craned my head around, still in my crouched position, to look at the man the vending machine was aimed at. He had black hair and wore a jacket lined with fur, with his hands stuffed in his pockets, but the thing that struck me most about him was that his face made me think instantly of a fox. He had a sickening smirk on his face, a slimly shaped face, and eyes that I can't describe as anything other than mischievous and possibly even evil.

And he was balancing perfectly on top of a fire hydrant, so he must have been towering a few feet above me, even when I was standing up, which was probably the reason the blonde man hadn't noticed me. That along with the fact that he had this look on his face that made me assume he hated this man with such an undying passion that nothing would stop him in his rampage.

Which brought me to a very important question: Do all people in this city have some weird, insane power like balance, intimidation, and strength?

In response to the fox-like man's teasing, the person I'm now assuming to be a bartender ran to the side of the street and tore a stop sign from the ground like it was nothing. He then proceeded to run towards the fox-faced man while carrying the stop sign like a baseball bat and screaming "DIE!"

Now, this other man was still standing behind me, so technically, he was running towards me while carrying the stop sign like a baseball bat and screaming "DIE!"

Making an "eep" noise, I rolled to the side as quickly as I could as Shizu came barreling in my direction, just barely avoiding being trampled. Meanwhile, the fox-faced man just jumped back really fast like he had special ninja powers or something. Of course, the blonde man still came running at him as he laughed in an insane manner and shouted out things that only further aggravated him. I, of course, took this moment to try and escape by crawling to the safety of the side of the street.

Throughout my little journey, I got a little scratch on my cheek from a shard of glass that came flying out of a window because of a street lamp crashing into it but, for the most part, exited the battlefield unharmed. As soon as I got to the edge of the street, I was being bombarded, in Japanese, with words of wisdom and encouragement.

"Get up!"

"Hurry before you get hurt!"

"Get out of there now!"

I got to my feet and ran to the intersection where a conjunction of people were speculating the brawl going on and was instantly greeted with a series of pats on the back and congratulations on making it out of there alive. "Thanks," I said as I gasped for breathes and tried to regain my composure. "I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes," I joked.

"I wouldn't be surprised," One man grunted in response seriously. "Every time those two go at it, the street that the fight took place on has to be closed to traffic for the next two weeks."

I raised my eyebrows at this, not sure if I was supposed to take him serious or not. I then looked back at the fight. The blonde was now tearing a random street sign out of the ground and was, no doubt, going to use it as a weapon. I decided then that I should take this statement seriously. "How often does this happen, anyway?" I asked, wondering if this was too much of a common occurrence.

"Every time they see each other," some other man said without missing a beat. "They hate each other so much that every single time they lay eyes on each other, this happens."

I was shocked, to say the least. "But… that's so…" I was trying to think of a word that wouldn't sound, to the people that have actually lived here for more than an hour, utterly ridiculous. "That's ludicrous!" And what better word to use than a synonym to the one I'd just used in my thoughts? "They can't hate each other that much, can they? Surely you're joking?" Call me deluded or whatever you may want, but my parents were hippies, hence me and my sister's names, and they somehow taught me, in the thirteen years of my life that they took part in, that violence and hatred are some of the worst things in the world so I've always hated the idea of violence. It makes me want to puke.

One of the women standing nearby gave me _the eye_. You know, the one that a woman uses when she spots her child reaching into the cookie jar when she specifically told them to wait for sweets until after dinner so she's getting ready to give them the lecture of a lifetime about high blood sugar and the possibility of obesity. Trust me, I know this eye very well from experience and I still haven't eaten another cookie to this day because of it. "You really aren't from around here, are you?" The woman asked.

I shook my head. "No, I only arrived here a little while ago with my imouto **(2*)**," I explained to her. Then it struck me: Aurora! In the span of only a few minutes, I'd completely forgotten about her! "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I forgot!" I gushed out quickly. I quickly turned to the three people I'd just spoken with, whom had all turned their heads back to the rising smoke from the fight. "Have any of you seen a little girl with red hair pass by here? She's about ye high," I measured out her height again and the eyes of the first man that spoke to me drifted in my direction again for only a moment before he nodded and stuck his thumb behind him.

"Yeah, you didn't see her? She and some blonde guy have been waving their arms around like morons screaming at you since you got here."

"What?" Shocked, I craned my neck to try and look over the crowd of people. This man must have had really good hearing to be able to hear them over this mess because I most certainly couldn't hear a thing. Either that, or living in a town as noisy as this really sharpens you senses. I was about to turn around and ask the man exactly _where_ they were when I heard it.

"Autumn-San!"

It definitely wasn't my sister's voice because it sounded it like a boy, a teenager at that, but he was saying my name. And didn't that guy just say that there was a boy with her?

I turned my head in the direction and what I saw eroded away all of the worry that I was previously feeling. "Aurora! You're alive!" I shouted over the people as I slowly began to push past them and get near my little sister.

"Of course I'm alive," came the deadpanned voice as I got close enough to finally hear her naturally soft and calming voice. "Why would I not?"

I finally got to her and tried to scooped her up in my arms to give her a really big hug, a task I found harder than I thought it would. I guess that five-year-old I used to carry around on my shoulders really had grown more than I expected. I settled for a nice little hug with her on the ground and pressed on and on about how hard I had tried to find her and that I was so worried and how she was such a beautiful little girl while she muttered to herself about how embarrassing I am. I didn't care if she thought I was acting like one of those parents that would kiss their kids goodbye in front of the school and showed baby pictures to their friends. All that mattered was that she was here, safe and sound. "Now, what happened? How did you get separated from me?"

She looked at me as if I was an idiot. "Did… you not hear a _single_ word I said back there?" She asked me as if she was talking to a child and quickly losing her patience.

"Uh…" I went back through what happened right before our separation; the only conversation we had that I could think about was the one where I couldn't even hear a thing she had said. So I just stood there, going "uh…" for another minute before my little sister's patience ran out.

Aurora sighed and smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "You are an idiot." She muttered in a highly annoyed tone. "I said that I was going to go ask for directions and that I wanted you to stay there. I came across this guy," the motioned towards the blonde teenage boy she was standing next to, who waved and gave me a cheeky smile, "who told me where Russia Sushi is, but when I got back, _someone_ was missing." She crossed her arms and closed her eyes. I could visibly see her eyebrow twitch, something she always did whenever she was extremely annoyed. "I'm just lucky that he was kind enough to help me look for you."

I began to feel sweat pour down my forehead, but despite this, I gave her another hug and cried out. "I'm so sorry, Aurora! I love you so!"

While my little sister was in the process of muttering to me about what a moron I am, the (now-not-so) mysterious stranger that had helped my little sister took his time to make himself noticed. "Ah, what a beautiful moment! The renitent of two sisters is such an emotional thing!" He clasped his hands together and looked off in the distance as if watching the emotional and happy ending to a dramatic movie.

I quickly let go of my sister and narrowed my eyes at the blonde boy. "And your name would be…?" I trailed off the question, giving him a blank to fill in.

"Kida Masaomi, at your service," he said, making a mock bow and grabbing my hand to kiss it. I quickly tore it away.

He, however, bounced back up from his bow, still wearing a large grin on his face. "So I was wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner tomorrow or something." There was a suggestive tone in his voice.

_This kid gets to the point real quick_, I thought to myself. _I'll give him credit for that_. "You do realize I'm over twenty, right?" I asked him in a dull tone. I really hate flirts.

"Oh, you are?" He asked, trying to look completely innocent. "I had no idea; you looked so young that I thought that you just _had_ to be in high school." He gave me one of the best sets of puppy-dog eyes I'd ever seen. "But if you want, we could still go to dinner for me rescuing your sister, though, right?" He was persistent, that much was for sure, but I could now say something positive on the subject.

At least I didn't need to be worried about any possible pedophiles named Masaomi anymore. Instead, I needed to look out for a flirtatious teenager that like older women named Masaomi.

I sighed before shrugging my shoulders because I know people like him; he won't give up until he gets what he wants. Plus, he did have a point. He kept my little sister safe, something I'd be eternally grateful to for him for the rest of my life. "Aurora and I were supposed to be meeting our aunt and uncle at Russia Sushi a while ago, anyway. You can tag along if you want."

The boy's grin widened. "Sweet!" He said in an overly excited tone. I rolled my eyes.

"Well, let's go now, Aurora," I said, grabbing my sister's hand and started walking around the large-scale battle still going on in front of us by taking another road. Masaomi follows behind us and begins to prattle on about some random topic that neither I nor my sister seemed to be listening to.

There might be kids Aurora's age that by now won't let their parents or siblings anywhere near them in fear that they would embarrass them in front their friends, sometimes even people that they don't even know. Some kids her age might tell their siblings or parents not to do certain things with them in public, like hug or hold hands or have emotional little chats with them. This isn't the case with my Aurora and it never will be for one reason and one reason alone. I am both her sibling and mother, her closest friend and the first person she goes to for advice, her companion through thick and thin, her role model and the most inspirational person she knows. It may sound farfetched and more than a little conceited coming from me, but it's only the truth. As far as she can remember there's been no one else there to raise her but me. Just me and her. Aurora and Autumn. And for that she'll always unconditionally love me, even if I act like a complete idiot or completely embarrass her or act like an over-protective mother over every little thing. And for this reason, it seems, we would never be willing to let go of each other, never willing to break this tight bond we've started and built a strong foundation on since the cold, dreadful day of November fourth.

And, yet, this move, this big change in our lives, scared me more than anything because if our surroundings changed, if she actually had someone other than me, like Uncle Richie and Aunt Hiromi, would that change? Would she stop relying on me so much? I didn't want that to ever happen. I always wanted to be all those things to her. I didn't want Uncle Richie to take her place as her parent or Aunt Hiromi as the first person she goes for advise, or this new Masaomi person to be her new best friend. Even thinking of these kinds of changes sent a chill down my spine that I just couldn't seem to rid myself of.

I was scared.

While thinking of this, I turn my head down to her, and although she wasn't looking directly at me, I knew that she was aware of my distressful position. Her hand squeezes mine, a sign that she, too, may be afraid of the new changes that are going to happen in our life and it's OK to be scared. _But don't worry_; the squeeze silently told me, _we'll make it through this. Together_.

Suddenly, however, Aurora stopped walking and dropped my hand so that it fell to my side. This worried me and I looked down at her face. She looks slightly angry at me. "What is it?" I prompt her, startled by her sudden change of attitude.

"Autumn, where did our suitcases go?"

**Noel Note**

**Done! Ok, I had a heck of a lot of fun writing this. Seriously, I finished this in one night, well, one night and a morning (finished it at one). Can you believe that? I just hope that I didn't make anyone OOC in this or that I didn't create a Mary-Sue. If I did, let me know, OK? I'll try and fix it.**

**And yeah, I realize this was a little serious and into the story for a first chapter, but I'm trying to introduce Autumn's worry-wart ways for you guys so that you got to know her some more and so that you can see just how strong her relationship with her sister is. And, yes, I'm going to try and make lots of paragraphs like the first and last couple ones in this story; just remember that Autumn is an author _and_ an older sister so she's very emotional, and that she sees the world in a very unique way.**

**Quick Fact: I had a hard time contemplating over Autumn's name. I really like hippie names so I was thinking over things like Sky (her original name), Echo, and River and couldn't decide when I looked out the car window and saw the pretty fall leaves, red like her hair, and it clicked. Fall. Autumn. It's utterly hippie _and_ it has a nice ring. Plus, I already knew Aurora's name and Aurora and Autumn both start with 'A.' I thought it was cute. ^-^**

**1*: I'm not completely sure if this is right, but according to my Spanish _and_ Chorus teachers, Americans (either that or English-speaking people in general; I forgot) are known for not rolling their 'r's. At all. So people can usually tell if you're English or not by the way your say 'r's. And "Aurora," which Autumn happened to be shouting out, had two 'r's in it.**

**2*: Imouto means "little sister." She was speaking in Japanese with those people, so I figured that I'd might as well use the proper terms. The citizens _are_ Japanese, after all.**

**Anyway, please feel free to leave a review for me. Reviews make the word go round! Also, if you want me to post another story, please vote on the poll in my profile. Have a good day!**

**~Noel14**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, people! I'd like to thank all of you for the reviews and support! And here's the second chapter of Insanity! It came out a little later than I would have liked, but I have a good excuse. It was Exam week at school and the holidays are coming up, so I've been busy writing Christmas poems and short stories for my family. But since my Winter Break is finally here, you can be expecting a quicker update. So, anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!**

**Disclaimer: You know, there's a reason that this called **_**fan**_**fiction. This is because it's written by **_**fans**_** for **_**fans**_** and these **_**fans**_** don't own whatever the **_**fan**_**fiction they're writing for is. And I am merely a humble **_**fan**_**fiction author. Do you know what that means? I don't own Durarara!**

**Insanity**

**By: Noel14**

**Chapter 2: It's the Little Things in Life**

I never have been a very sporty person in the least and probably never will be. Academics were always more of my thing; I always took extra literature and history electives and got out of gym every chance I got during my three years of high school because I hated physical activity so much. So running isn't something I take any particular pleasure in, especially over long distances, and I was literally gasping for breath by the time we reached the place where I left our suitcases.

This must have been some sort of miracle.

Our suitcases were, thankfully, on the side of the street, right where I left them when I got back. Granted, they were lying on their sides and were soaked with some water, leftover from rain that most likely came a few days ago, from cars passing by quickly on the streets, but nothing was opened and I was relieved by the end of my thorough examination to find that there was nothing damaged and that all the clothes inside were in the exact order I had left them in. I sighed in exasperation. "Thank all that's good that they're still here!"

"Yeah, that's pretty lucky for you," Masaomi said with a grin, holding his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner. "Usually, those would have been stolen or raided or something. Guess that the decent people happened to be passing by, then."

I smiled at him and bent over, grabbing the handles of the two suitcases and was about to stand back up when suddenly a familiar voice rang through my ears.

"Well, look who's here. I haven't seen you in a while, Masaomi-San."

My head tilted upwards and I saw the same man that Shizu had been throwing large objects at not even ten minutes ago- I think his name was Izawa or something. He had a smirk on his face and was currently facing Masaomi, who now seemed strangely stiff and staring at the man with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Oh, hey, Izaya-San." Even the tone in his voice had lost all traces of excitement that it once held and his hands were now stuffed inside of his pockets. "You finished your brawl with Shizuo?"

"Oh, yeah," He started, bouncing on the balls of his feet, "I got bored and took off about three minutes or so ago. Shizu-Chan sure seemed angry today~"

I nearly bugged out at this. I just spent at least ten minutes trying to get to this location and this guy made it here at just the same time as us when we had a seven-minute head-start.

I think I've just added super-speed to the list of weird, insane powers I've seen in Ikebukuro so far.

"But moving past that," Izaya said, interrupting Masaomi just as he opened his mouth to say something to him, "I was just passing by and happened to notice one of my new acquaintances here." He turned his eyes towards me and I noted, chillingly, that they were a mix between dark brown and bloody red. "So I just wanted to know who the young lady I met this evening was."

_So it seems as if one of those two lunatics were actually keeping tabs on me_.

He walked over towards me and I felt my body freezing up for some reason when I noticed how tall he is. I've always been a little short and, being about five feet and three inches tall, I'm kind of used to having people tower over me like a skyscraper, but even so, I found the fact that this man, who must have had at least five inches on me, was taller than I was absolutely unsettling in every way, shape, and form. And just to add on to the facts of why I'm justified in automatically disliking him, he also has that gaze of his, those creepy little red or brown- or whatever color they are- eyes and that big, overly-friendly grin. His over-all appearance just gave me the creeps.

_But maybe I'm just being shallow and judging people before I even know them again_. I nearly smacked myself for being so judgmental when I had only just met him.

"Uh," I stuttered out, trying my best not to sound stupid and nervous and very possibly failing, "I'm Autumn S- I mean Sanders Autumn! It's nice to meet you!" I almost forgot that last names go first here. I can't imagine what it would be like if some had started calling me Sanders.

"Oh, so Sanders-San, huh?" _Oh, yeah. There's always the respectful surname-honorific thing, too_. I felt so stupid that I just wanted to go and crawl into a hole and not come out. "I could have guessed you were foreign by the way you were wandering around in the middle of the city like a lost puppy earlier. Only a foreigner would be stupid enough to get in front of Shizu-Chan when he's angry." I tried to ignore the fact that he'd just practical called me an idiot, but still felt a little jab. "But, anyway, do you mind if I call you Autumn-Chan instead? I've never really cared much for surnames; they're too formal for my taste. And, quite frankly, I find Sanders to be a rather dull name."

I faked a light smile, trying to ignore the rudeness of the statement, and I'm sure that my voice through anyone's ears made me sound completely nerve-wrecked. "That's fine, then. I've never been used to calling anyone by their surnames so I'd most likely call you by your first name, anyway." I'm also fairly sure that the meek grin on my face never met my eyes.

Izaya merely gave a shrug of his shoulders and another mix between a smirk and an insincere smile. "Alright, then, Autumn-Chan; I'm Orihara Izaya, but you can just call me Izaya-Kun if you want." He gave a small bow that gave me the feeling he was being sarcastic but soon enough, his eyes moved away from me and towards the smaller figure of Aurora standing right next to me. This made me feel a bit uncomfortable and involuntarily grabbed my sister's hand while glaring at him. "And I'm going to assume that this is-"

"Autumn-San's imouto, Aurora-Chan," Masaomi cut him off in midsentence; now acting as upbeat as he was only a minute ago. He was obviously trying to look relaxed, judging by the lopsided smile he had back on his face and the way he put his arm over Aurora's shoulder's like he was her older brother. But there was still something about him that made him look a bit unsettled. Maybe it was the way his muscles still looked a little tensed or the weird look on his eyes…

"Ah, so you two are sisters!" Izaya's hands were in his pockets, but he leaned forward, right in my face as if he had no respect for others' privacy, with a delighted smile on his lips. Those eyes that vaguely reminded me of a coppery color wandered all over my face before they moved to Aurora, who was still standing next to Masaomi. I was thankful for the fact that he was protecting my sister; I haven't even known Izaya for more than five minutes and I already know that he's not the kind of person I'd like to ever go near her. Izaya's eyes only stayed on Aurora for a few moments, however, before they darted back to me.

I'm sure that it had been scrunched up in an expression that made me look uncomfortable because he laughed a bit, sending chills down my spine and, thankfully, leaned back and away from me. "Other than the hair," he mused aloud, "which I'm assuming you both dyed, I wouldn't say that you two look much alike at all."

It was true. Aurora and I looked almost nothing alike; she got all the good looks of the family: Dad's bright blue eyes and high cheekbones and Mom's soft facial features and (naturally) strawberry blonde hair. Meanwhile, I was stuck with Dad's sharp, angular face and dark brown hair and Mom's emerald eyes. Everything about our faces, and even personalities, contradicted each other so greatly that a lot of people might be surprised when they find out we're siblings if it weren't for the fact that I pretty much make my protective nature over her common knowledge.

Nevertheless, this comment of Izaya's kind of upset me for some reason.

But however much this comment unsettled me, I knew that Aurora wasn't respond and it wasn't like Masaomi could say anything to this because it was directed towards me, so I had to say something, right? But… what was I supposed to say to _that_?

I fumbled for something to say back to him inside of my head, something witty that won't make me sound like an idiot, but he must have known he got me because Izaya's smirk widened and he snickered quietly to himself. "Anyway," he said to me in an amused tone, "I really must be going now or I'll be late for an appointment with a client. Sayonara~!"

He waved to us with one final smirk and, I kid you not, skipped down the street while humming off-key to a tune that vaguely reminded me of 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga. It was enough to make me puke.

* * *

><p>"Ah, Ms.! You find little sister!" I was face-to-face with the tall Russian man that had pointed out what direction Aurora went in for me not too long ago. He looked as if he was done handing out flyers and was just about to head into the restaurant he was standing in front of, to work as a waiter, no doubt. He offered the two of us a large smile and held the door open for us. "You come for good sushi, yes?"<p>

I gave him a grin in exchange for the one he was giving me and nodded. "Yes, we were supposed to meet our aunt and uncle here… about an hour ago, actually. They're probably worried sick. Oh, thank you!" I walked in through the door with Aurora following silently behind me, as she usually does and the Russian man went off in some random direction to take orders from customers.

Yes, we were an hour late and my statement didn't have an ounce of dishonesty to it. Uncle Richie was probably calling the police to issue the disappearance of two "little girls" while Aunt Hiromi was, in all likeliness, having a mental break-down and crying in the middle of the restaurant. People would be staring at them, and a few customers would be leaving because of the commotion and depressed aura radiating around the area while others would stick around, possibly having seen past the wig Hiromi was most likely wearing to keep the paparazzi away, taking pictures to get in the newspaper tomorrow morning.

But, of course, I must have just been freaking out over nothing, like I normally do, because when we entered Russia Sushi, there was nothing disheartening amidst the restaurant. People were sitting and talking calmly at tables scattered around the building and I didn't hear anyone franticly calling over the phone, "Police? Yes, I'd like to report two disappearances…"

As I looked around, I finally spotted them sitting in a booth, looking around anxiously, as if we would somehow miraculously pop in the middle of the building if they did. Uncle Richie was sitting so that his body was facing us but didn't seem to spot us yet and who I was assuming was Aunt Hiromi wearing a short brown wig had her back to us.

Aurora and I approached the booth quietly and Uncle Richie must have spotted us because he sighed out what looked like a breath of relief and waved to us with a large smile on his face. "Autumn-Chan! Aurora-Chan! Over here! We saved seats for you guys!"

He seems a little too fluent in Japanese for me not to be a little shocked considering that the last time I saw him, he couldn't say any more than "kon'nichiwa" or "arigato."

Aunt Hiromi soon became aware of our presence as well and craned her next around to see us. I noticed she was wearing contacts to make her eyes look more of like a hazel color.

As we sat down in the booth, I became a little relieved that Masaomi had to leave after the episode with Izaya, saying that he forgot that he needed to meet up with some friends because, not only was the booth they'd gotten only for four people, but after Izaya came by, Masaomi looked a little upset or uncomfortable for some reason, and I wasn't too sure why. I didn't want him to seem uncomfortable around our aunt and uncle, too.

"Autumn-Chan; Aurora-Chan! It's so nice to see you two again!" Aunt Hiromi offered us a large grin as I sat down next to her and Aurora took her seat next to Uncle Richie. "How long has it been, again? Six years? My, you two have really grown, especially you, Aurora! Last time I saw you, you weren't even in school yet! You look absolutely adorable!" She gushed out quickly.

Aurora didn't give much of an indication of this, just a nod of the head and quick a "thanks." Aurora's never been one for many words so this was about as much as you'd get out of her unless you were as close to her as I am. And considering that she hasn't even seen Aunt Hiromi or Uncle Richie since she was four, apart from the pictures I have stored on my laptop, it's going to take a while to get something out of her mouth.

Sensing this, Uncle Richie turned his head in my direction and gave me one of his ever-so-charming grins that he always had. "So, Autumn-Chan, you just turned _twenty-three_, eh? That's a big number; I'm starting to feel kind of old!" Even though he's only in his early thirties, he joked around like he always used to, back before his marriage and move to Japan with Aunt Hiromi. Their wedding seemed so distant, so far away from the past that it almost felt as if it had never happened, yet the events that occurred only a month beforehand seemed imprinted in my memory like a searing scar that would never go away.

I fiddled with the silver band on my ring finger, staring longingly at the little blue jewel in the middle. "Yeah," I said, probably sounding as though I was in a haze. "Twenty-three…"

He caught me looking at the ring and his smile faded slightly, but Aunt Hiromi decided to step in. "So you can count this…" She suddenly ducked under the table. I watched with dreary eyes as she popped up again with a small package wrapped in yellow paper and a blue ribbon in her hands and a bright smile on her face. "… As a birthday gift." She shoved the package into my hands, motioning for me to open it.

I stared at the package for only a moment. My thoughts were still dazed a bit from what had happened sixed years ago, but I didn't want to seem depressed on my first day here, so I smiled as brightly as I could back at her. "Wow, thanks Aunt Hiromi, Uncle Richie!" I quickly untied the blue ribbon and tore at the golden paper. At the sight of the package's contents I felt a genuine smile spread and my muscles relax a bit.

"Well, you're still into writing, aren't you?" Uncle Richie questioned, prompting me to say something.

I couldn't stop the silly smile on my face. "Yeah; I've actually got two of my books published, believe it or not."

"Oh, that's great!" Aunt Hiromi exclaimed, obviously happy. "What are they called? What were they about?"

"'Hourglass' and 'Never Again,'" I told her, looking up from the item in my lap, grin still on my face. "One's about a girl who has to rescue her kidnapped sister and the other about a girl coping with the betrayal of her best friend."

"Oh, that sounds interesting," Uncle Richie said, leaning over the table. "Do you happen to have any copies on h-"

"You all ready to order sushi?" We all looked over to see the Russian man, now wearing a uniform with a name tag reading 'Simon' on it and holding a pad and pen in hand.

"Ah," Uncle Richie looked down at his menu for a moment before looking back up, smiling. "Actually, yeah; I'd like a…"

I started to tune out what he was saying as I flipped through the empty pages of the book in my lap, thinking of how I'm going to fill it up and what I'm going to fill it up with. I could only imagine how much of my life I could fit into this book, how many secrets, feelings, and emotions I'll be imprinting in it. There were so many possibilities, so many different things I could do in this small little book that I was practically trembling with joy and excitement.

Some people might think that a little brown leather journal with a small lock on it makes a kind of crappy birthday gift, but to me, it meant the world and, I would soon learn, it would be one of the only things holding my sanity together in this place in the near future.

* * *

><p>It was late at night as Izaya sat in his office by himself, spinning in his chair erratically in front of his desk in a manner that a bored child would. "What to do, what to do," he kept repeating to himself in a cheerful tone that suggested that he had nothing left to do at the moment, yet was still looking forward to what was left of the day.<p>

He'd already caused enough chaos in Ikebukuro for one day, spent more time than he could find enjoyable around Shizuo, and there wasn't anyone notably worth his presence on the chat rooms at the moment, so he was stuck with nothing to do. And his boredom was beginning to irk him, but still, his cheerful attitude never left him, for Orihara Izaya _never_ went a moment without enjoying his life to the fullest.

Sighing as he kept himself spinning in the chair, he went over his day to see if there was any new information that his mind could dwell over in the moments of his boredom.

He thought about all the people he saw sniffling and sneezing around town and decided that a cold epidemic was starting. Not that it made much of a difference to him; he always did have a strong immune system, so there'd be no way he'd catch anything. So he moved on to a different subject that would prove to be more entertaining.

It seemed as if Shizuo was becoming easier to anger lately, something that he knew would end up being troublesome in the future but seemed a bit amusing to him in the meantime. For now, he could use Shizuo's irritation to entertain himself whenever he felt like stirring up more trouble. _And speaking of Shizu-Chan…_

His mind wandered to their battle this afternoon and the naïve little foreign girl that somehow managed to, unknowingly, get in the middle of it. Autumn; that was her name. The redheaded girl didn't really strike him as much of an interesting person, honestly; she was just another, boring, predictable human that he could already tell he struck a bit of fear in and her sister proved to be just as boring, if not even more, by the fact that he hadn't even gotten a word out of her. But, however, there seemed to be something familiar about that name of hers, or, more accurately, her _last_ name. _Sanders_… Now, where had he heard that before? He was sure that it was a foreign name; there was no way it wasn't, but then why did it sound so familiar?

Now having something to preoccupy himself with, he stopped spinning in his chair and logged on to his computer with a swift motion of the hand. Before he knew it, he was already on the search bar of his internet page and typing in the name.

"**Sanders"**

He hadn't really expected anything note-worthy to pop up, but instead, what he got was page upon page of headlined labeled things like "Sanders Elected One of Japan's Top Models" and "Sanders Hiromi, a Poor Girl Gone into Stardom."

Oh, so the Sanders he had actually heard of was a model. It made sense in his mind that he'd heard of her, yet not kept track of this woman because she was a model. Izaya, simply put, just had too much of a life to spend his days ogling at woman in magazines dressed in elogant or exotic clothing.

However, this quickly captured his interest and before he knew it, he had clicked on one of the first links that came up: a Wikipedia page. There was so much information right here on this one link, whether it was accurate or not, that he actually became slightly curious about this woman and how she might have tied in with this foreign girl he met on the streets that day.

Of course, he quickly scratched off that Hiromi and Autumn were blood-related because, although the last name was _very_ foreign, _Hiromi_ was definitely Japanese and he was pretty sure from the pictures that were on the page that she looked Japanese as well. So he came to the conclusion that she married to a foreigner and his thoughts were proven correct when he read that she had married a photographer named Richard Sanders under the section labeled "Personal Life." However, as he scrolled through the page, he didn't even see the names "Autumn" or "Aurora" once so he figured the name must have merely been a coincidence.

With an exasperated sigh, he was about to log off the computer and turn in for the night when he scrolled back to the top of the page and saw it.

There was a picture of Hiromi wearing a small blue bikini and smiling flirtatiously into the camera (probably taken before she got married, he assumed, and kept there for the perverted men that actually _enjoyed_ spending time staring at women all day) and underneath, there was a little box of information. Her birthdate, occupation, and other bits of information were all lined up in that one box, and at the very bottom, there was one section that caught his attention.

**Family:**

**Sanders Richard (Husband)**

**Sakishima Kyushu (Father)**

**Sakishima Harada (Mother)**

**Sanders Autumn (Niece)**

**Sanders Aurora (Niece)**

And one of these names just so happened to have a link attached.

Izaya sniggered quietly to himself with the mouse hovering just over the name. "Oh, it looks as if Autumn-Chan might actually be a bit more interesting than I thought if she has her own Wikipedia page~!"

With a cat-like grin spread on his face, he clicked on the link and read away.

**Noel Note**

**OK, this didn't come out nearly as well as the last one… But in my defense, I'm not exactly sure where the last chapter came from. It's, like, I was on a roll. And now I'm not. So… yeah. Be prepared for my writing to be more like it was in this chapter. Just for future reference. Also, I didn't proofread as much as I probably should have, so I'm really sorry for any typos, bad spelling, or grammatical errors.**

**Oh, and I'm not too sure if I can count Izaya as in character because he's just a very... difficult person to write for. So if he (or anyone else for that matter) isn't in character, tell me and I'll try to fix it as best as I can.**

**Quick Fact: This story is set about a year before Mikado comes to Ikebukuro, so Masaomi is still in middle school… I think, anyway (they were first-years in the anime, right?). So, yeah, we won't be seeing Anri and Mikado for a while and you shouldn't be expecting them to pop up with Masaomi any time soon. Oh, and this was uploaded on my sixteenth B-Day. ^-^**

**Thanks a ton for the reviews: TMNTLittleTomboy; XxAmi . IzunexX; tsukinoyume11; Snow Kyubbi**

**Thanks a ton for the alerts: TMNTLittleTomboy; XxAmi . IzunexX; Lady Hawk Wind; mittensx7768; tsukinoyume11**

**Thanks a ton for the favorites: XxAmi . IzunexX; mittensx7768**

**Thanks again and remember: I love each and every one of you and I really appreciate all the support!**

**~Noel-Chan**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, guys, I know this is really late, but I hope you had a (Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, and/or Happy Other Holidays) and a happy new year, as well as a fantastic Valentine's Day! I'm sorry this is so late, and that this chapter is kinda short and boring, but I hope you enjoy it, nontheless!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not too sure what it is that might have possessed you to think that I own Durarara (the demonic spirit of a restless lawyer, maybe?), but I'm pretty sure I don't… Then again, I could be wrong. Eh, whatever; I don't own Durarara (last time I checked) so don't bother asking.**

**Insanity**

**By: Noel14**

**Chapter 3: Seven's the Lucky Number**

On my first week in Ikebukuro, I spent the mornings walking Aurora to her new Elementary school, Michi Academy **(1*)**. It was a fairly nice-looking building with cream-colored walls on the outside and a nice little garden of bushes and wild flowers out in the front; nothing fancy, but it didn't look shady or anything, so I figured it was nice enough.

Although, I have to admit that the lady at the front desk was a bit unnecessarily rude when I told her my sister transferred and needed her new schedule and such on her first day.

However, once the task of signing some papers and sending Aurora off to her first class was done, I left the school with a small amount of hesitance. She didn't have an escort to her to her class, so I was a bit worried that she'd go in the wrong direction and get lost. And then she'd never be able to find any of her classes and be marked with all absences and fail school. And then what? Her life would be a total wreck, just like mine. She'd be a (in some ways) single, paranoid woman in her early twenties that can't find any jobs at anywhere but fast-food restaurants and food markets.

And for a moment on day number one, I considered going back and bursting into her school, looking in each hallway, classroom, and janitor's closet in the building until I found that familiar head of red hair and made sure she was in class. And I almost did.

Almost.

But I was able to restrain myself and keep walking on the sidewalk with my usual short stride and moved on to my next task of the day that I developed a habit for on my first week in Ikebukuro: job hunting.

And it was while I was searching for a job on my seventh full day in Ikebukuro when _it_ happened and completely turned my life around, although for the better or worse, I'm still not quite sure.

* * *

><p>Five job interviews, each one of them ending in rejection. But I was still keeping myself in high spirits, no matter how many times I was denied a job because, in fact, I knew there were tons stores here, so there had so many jobs available in this place that I would be employed in no time. Besides, seven <em>is<em> the lucky numer, right? **(2*)**

… _Right_?

I mean, I really had no idea just how _big_ this city was. Within ten minutes, I had already passed by at least three bakeries, five Laundromats, and about six different bars and needed to stop to look at the town map I had picked up earlier in the week about every two minutes. I couldn't help but find everything about this place amazing; the biggest place I had ever been in for a long period of time was this town about half an hour away from where I lived by foot, and even then, the biggest building they had was only four stories tall and I'm pretty sure some of these buildings were at least _twenty_ stories tall. Colorado was so small compared to this place that it was terrifying.

I just felt so small and insignificant compared to everything in this town; even the street signs and lamp posts seemed to be looming over me menacingly. But, then again, maybe the flying vending machines from last week had just freaked me out too much.

_Surely, there are enough jobs to go 'round for me to get one, too, right?_

_…_

_Oh, God, what if I remain jobless for the rest of my life and end up leeching off of my aunt and uncle until they die of old age?_

I started to bug out at this and began to eye the people in the crowd around me wearily, and kept walking. I was getting way too many stares from people for most people to feel comfortable. I remember that at that moment, I had managed to convince myself that everyone in this damn city was out to get me or something.

But in reality, it was probably just because of my choice of outfit: a dark green V-neck and bright frilly purple skirt that cut off just above my knees to make walking an easier task.

Yes, I _had, _strangely enough, become quite fond clashing colors and skirts over the twenty-three years of my life.

So, of course, my outfit probably would have attracted a bit of attention, but in my defense, that's what the odd color combinations were supposed to do in the first place (second grade; first time being "in love"; no idea what the hell I was supposed to do to get him to notice me), so they were serving their purpose rather well. And as I had grown so used to these kinds of stares by then that I was supposed to beyond even caring about it anymore, but there were just so many more people here than in my hometown that it was absolutely nerve-wracking, so I just _tried_ kept my eyes and ears on the buildings, lights, and car horns that surrounded me, mesmerized by the city and yet acutely aware of the hunger slowly gnawing away at my stomach.

Actually, for the most part, I just ignored my aching stomach until it was about twelve, when it started to growl. So at that point, I was looking for a decent-looking restaurant to eat at in order to satisfy my hunger, or at least for the walk.

I had my eye on this little café across the street from me when I felt my shoulder bump into someone else's rather hard and, panicked, turned around to see a man, probably in his late thirties, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at me. "Hey, watch where you're going, lady!" He spat at me.

My face quickly lit up like a torch and I bowed several times while gushing out a quick. "Oh my gosh, I am so, so, _so_ sorry! Please forgive me!"

The man's eyes narrowed at me, and it seemed he was paying my apologies no mind. "Strange accent you've got there, lady. You foreign?"

My face was slowly beginning to cool down, but I didn't want to answer his question for a number of reasons, one being that he looked a bit like a thug (there's me being shallow again. UGH!). The other reason was the "no talking to strangers" rule. True, that's something you tell little kids, but you don't give out information so easily to people you don't even know, especially in a big city like this.

_What if he decides to kidnap me and sell me into human trafficing or sex slavery or something?_

So…

I mustered up as much of my courage as I could and put my head up in the air to make myself look dignified, then spoke in the best Japanese accent that I could come up with, which probably wasn't saying much in the least. "I'm sorry, but I'm not obligated to answer your question, sir." It probably came out sounding more like an "I sorry, but I no obligated to answer question, sir." I blame Japan for having such a complicated and hard language to learn.

And, really, I had no idea just how _stupid_ that reply sounded until it came out of my mouth.

I only noticed he was staring at my hand a moment before a wide grin broke out on his face and he quickly latched his hands onto my wrist. Of course, I shrieked and pulled my hand back, but by then, he was already holding something up in front of my face between his index finger and thumb. A silver ring with a bright blue circular jewel in the center. "Well, try convincing the cops to help you get this back, you alien **(3*)**!" He began to run in another direction and I felt my heart skip a beat.

That ring was –no, still is- my most prized possession, the only thing I _have_ never and _will_ never leave home without. That ring, as crazy as this may make me sound, comforted me when I was sad, brought tears to my eyes when I was in my times of need, and gave me the false sense of security that everything would be fine when, in reality, it wouldn't. That ring was everything to me: my hope, my feelings of love and hate, and the pain that made me who I am today. That ring holds so much personal meaning to me.

And that man just took it. He took it because he thought that I was an illegal alien and that I wouldn't get any help.

_God, Autumn, you're such an idiot!_

My mind processed things slowly as my eyes began to well up with tears and I let out a shrill scream, reaching out an arm so I would be able to catch him by the sleeve. However, my finger nails barely even brushed his arm as he raced past me and sped off while laughing like a maniac, probably thinking that he had just struck it rich.

Which he most likely would have, had he not run right into someone else's chest before he'd made it even ten feet away from me.

"Hey, move it, man!"

Next thing the man knew, he was being yanked up by his shirt and came face-to-face with a blonde man wearing a bartender outfit. The same guy that almost crushed me with a vending machine a week ago while trying to kill that Izaya guy.

The thief instinctively dropped the ring that he had taken from me and the silver band dropped to the ground.

No time to think. With lightning quick reflexes, I dived down to the ground and grabbed it before anyone else that was nearby got any ideas. I didn't even take notice when several men of all ages stopped to try and see if they could a glimpse at anything past my skirt. Damn perverts.

But back to the ring.

Thank goodness that it was only covered in a small layer of dirt. I sighed in relief and stood back up to see the blonde man chewing out the other guy. "Who the hell do you think you are? Bumping into someone and not even saying sorry? Huh?"

"I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't realize it was you, Heiwajima-San! I swear!" The man's pleads for forgiveness only fell on deaf ears as the blonde man continued on, sounding enraged.

"And then only a minute ago you bumped into that chick, too, and you acted like an ass hole. What's up with that, huh? You think you're all high and mighty?" The vein on his forehead was throbbing and his face was red with anger so I could tell that he really was pissed off. I was just glad that this anger wasn't directed towards me that time.

Truth be told, I should have probably run right about then, gotten out of there while I still had the chance of just walking away perfectly fine. And, normally, I would have, just seeing how the blonde man picked the other guy off of the ground so easily, not even breaking a sweat. Normally, my mind would immediately go into panic and start thinking horrible situation after horrible situation and I'd just run off, but…

I looked down at the ring that now rested in my hands and looked up steadily. The blonde bartender looked really pissed now, if you hadn't considered him so before and it seemed that the more the other man apologized to him, the angrier he got. He just kept yelling things like "No decent person would steal from women or bump into another person and then yell at them," and "People like you really piss me off." And it was about that time that a crowd, looking frightened, awed, and hateful all at the same time, had circled around the three of us. No one had even dared to come near.

It was at about the point that he looked as if he was about to hurl the man into the nearest gutter and beat him with a traffic sign when my body started to act on its own. I quickly sprang forward, grabbing onto the bartender's sleeves. "No, wait, please, don't hurt him!"

Yeah. The man stole my most prized possession and yet I didn't want to see him get hurt. That's just how much I loathed violence. I couldn't stand the sight of it.

The blonde man's neck craned around to look at me, his look of rage only letting up a little as he did so. Anger and abhorrence were the most evident emotions I could see in his eyes, past his sunglasses, and his muscles seemed to be tensed, ready to throw the nearest hulking object at the man he held in his grasp. Or possibly even me. He even went as far as to snap a slightly embarrassed, yet harsh, "Don't tell me what to do," at me. Even so, he released the poor man from his grip with what looked to be much hesitance and regret, and he dropped to the ground to a thump. With a grateful, yet weary, glance in my direction, the man scurried off quickly into the crowd. But I didn't dare move from my spot.

The blonde man was still staring at me, anger slowly fading from his expression, as if expecting me to say something. "Well?" He barked.

I was now at a loss for words. "U-Uh," I started out dumbly. It was clear now that most of the anger was gone from the blonde man's face, and so the crowd started to break apart; this man no longer being of any interest to them.

The bartender reached into his chest pocket as I fumbled for words and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

He smokes. I slightly cringed at this, thinking of the last time I spoke with someone that actually smoked. It had been a long time, now that I think about it. Ever since the incident six years beforehand, I had gone into over-protective sister mode and went as far to not associate myself with people that smoked in order to protect Aurora from lung cancer or something. Very over the edge, yes, but when you're a (what many people may consider) single woman with no family apart from your baby sister, aunt and uncle that live in Japan, and completely nursing-home dependent grandparents, you'll go way over the edge for almost everything, too.

Or maybe not. Maybe that's just me.

Completely unaware of my thoughts, the bartender took a drag on the cigarette and I took the time to notice that he looked calmer now. Much calmer. It faintly reminded me of my parents a bit. "Yeah?" Then I noticed that he was turned ever so slightly, looking like he was getting ready to leave. I had no idea what was holding him back from doing so, until I noticed that I was still holding onto his arm.

"O-Oh," my face heated up a little bit and I looked down at my shoes while I let go of his sleeve. "I just wanted to say thank you…"

"No problem," he grunted, starting to turn away from me.

Panic immediately enveloped me and, on reflex, I grabbed his sleeve again. He stopped and looked back at me, annoyance clear in his eyes. Realizing that what I did was both rude _and_ uncalled for; I paled slightly and lowered my arm. The man was scary, that was for sure. Still, I remained persistent. "N-No, hold on a minute! I need to repay you!"

He looked at me through his blue sunglasses and I could see that he was grinding the cigarette with his teeth. "Look, I said it's no big deal, so don't-"

"No, but it _is_ a big deal!" Of course I ignored both the slightly angry look that was in his eyes a moment ago _and_ the nagging voice in the back of my head that was telling me to high-tail it out of there and not look back. But I paid them no mind at all. The only thing I could think properly was how much that ring meant to me and how I was going to repay the man that made sure I still have it, who, speaking of which, now had a faint look of curiosity and confusion mixed into one on his face. Wait, no, he still looked ever so slightly annoyed with me.

"Huh?" I supposed the grunt was supposed to be him asking for clarification.

"Well… Uh…" I was looking around, trying to think up _something_ I could do to repay him when, suddenly, my stomach let out a ferocious growl that almost scared me. Surprised, I looked down at my stomach, then over at the café across the street, and then back to the blonde man standing in front of me. I smiled at him, something I found hard considering the fact that he nearly landed me in the hospital via a flying vending machine just a week before.

But, no, this was not the time to think about that. It was too late to back out of this now. If I was going to dig my own grave, then I might as well have done it with a little bit of courage and dignity.

"Have you eaten lunch yet?"

**Noel Note**

**I'm so sorry that this came out so late, but it's been busy at home and I got stuck somewhere around the end! T~T And I didn't mean for it to be so short, either, but I guess that's just the way it turned out. Plus, I was trying very carefully not to make Shizuo seem very… you know, OOC. I _really_ don't do anger well.**

**And, no, Autumn did _not_ just ask Shizuo out on a date. Or, if she did, not intentionally.**

**Quick Fact: Autumn does not speak perfect Japanese, as you could see from earlier in the chapter. Mostly, whenever it seems like she had her grammar, translations, and stuff correct, it's because it's from her point of view and that's what she _means_ to say. So, yes, she does have a pretty heavy and rather crappy accent, but throughout the story, she gets better at it.**

**1*: Yes, I made up the school name. Michi is actually a unisex Japanese name meaning 'pathway,' so I thought that would be a cool name for a school.**

**2*: Seven is actually _unlucky_ in Japan, even though, where Autumn grew up, it's supposed to be lucky.**

**3*: OK, that probably sounded wierd. Lol. No, he's not an alien fanatic like Celty. He means illegal alien. He thinks Autumn's not supposed to be in Japan.**

**Thanks so much for the reviews: Snow Kyubbi; beebistar; TMNTLittleTomboy; cookie monster; Otaku-neku**

**Thanks so much for the alerts: Snow Kyubbi; windwolf1988; And the Awesome; Piacine; The Brief Silence**

**Thanks so much for the favorites: beebistar; Kitsune Barra Hime; Otaku-neku**

**Love you guys, and thanks so much for taking the time to read this; it really gives a boost to me ego! ^-^ I'll see you guys the next time I update, but for now, you'll just have to wait.**

**And, please, feel free to review! Bye!**

**~Noel-Chan**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, I'm back! I'm glad you guys liked the last chapter (even though it was rather crappy in my opinion T~T I'm so sorry!). And I'm also sorry if Shizuo seems OOC, but I'm trying to keep him as In Character as possible, with his slightly awkward yet easily angered personality. But, anyway, here's Chapter Four!**

**Disclaimer: All that I own are Autumn, Aurora, Hiromi, Richie, and the random waitress. Most of the rest of the stuff in this story is, in no way, mine. *Sigh* This makes me so depressed...**

**Insanity**

**By: Noel14**

**Chapter 4: Just that Easy**

It had to have been one of _the_ most awkward moments in my entire life.

After I had proposed lunch with the bartender, he just took the cigarette out of his mouth and kind of stared at me like I had two heads coming out of my neck or something. As I watched the smoke rise up in the air, I slowly felt my smile fading, melting into a deep frown. The biggest response I had received from the blonde for the next minute or so were a couple of blinks, and my anxiety was building up rather quickly.

But only when he grunted out another "huh?" did my face flush.

Quickly, I turned around, hoping he didn't see my red face, and was about to stalk off in a state of small depression since he obviously didn't want to eat lunch with someone like me. What was I thinking?

I called to him over my shoulder. "Uh... Never mind. Sorry for bothering you."

I hadn't expected him to actually answer me. "… No, that's fine. I'm on lunch break, anyway." I turned around and saw him, his head turned away from me, but with a slightly perplexed look on his face.

The small grin had crept back onto my lips and I nodded. "Alright, arigato, um…" I fumbled slightly, and realized that I didn't know the man's name. "I'm sorry, but what's your name?"

"Heiwajima Shizuo," he said. He then proceeded to put his cigarette back inside his mouth and take a drag on it.

I almost grimaced at the smoke that came out of his mouth, but managed to keep my smile and nodded. "Sanders Autumn. It's nice to meet you, Shi- uh, Heiwajima-San."

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Shizuo's fine."

I nodded. "OK, then, Shizuo, in that case, you can just call me Autumn. Now, where do you want to eat? It's all on me."

He stared at me for a moment. "You don't have to pay for-"

"But I _insist_!"

At that moment, he looked a bit annoyed, but he seemed to shake it off pretty quickly after taking another drag on his cigarette and just shrugged. "Whatever. I don't care what we eat."

"OK, then," I tapped my finger under my chin for a few moments, thinking. "Then would you mind that café just across the street?"

And so that's where we went only a minute later. We were lead outside, to this little table with a closed umbrella sticking up from the middle. It was such a perfect scene, such a beautiful little place that I wondered for a moment what it would be like if _he_ was sitting here with me. I know he'd love this place; the sun was positioned just right and a nice, cool breeze warning us of the approaching winter blew by. I know he'd pull out my chair for me, and then joke around the moment he sat down…

Shizuo sat in his seat and I shook the thoughts out of my head as I followed suit. The waitress seemed very nervous for some reason. Maybe she was just shy?

"I-I'll come and get your orders in one m-moment!"

But then, when I heard the fear in her voice, I remembered this man's reputation for throwing large bulking objects like they were just children's toys. Could it be that everyone in this city knows him somehow?

I looked over at Shizuo. He had the decency to put out his cigarette before we sat down to eat even though we're still technically outside, thankfully, but I could still smell the faint scent of smoke emanating off of him, and it was making me a bit nauseous. It's been such a long time since the accident that even the slightest smell of smoke was enough to send me into a major headache.

The blonde sitting across from me seemed to notice something strange was going on and cocked his head to the side slightly. "You alright?"

I nodded and smiled warily, trying to refrain from coughing my lungs out. "Sorry; I've got a small headache."

Shizuo eyed me cautiously and then nodded, probably figuring that he shouldn't ask. I was grateful for this and allowed my eyes to dart down to the menu in front of me. I already knew the section that I was heading for, though, so the menu was more of a distraction for me than anything.

At that moment, the waitress had wandered over to our table, looking pale and appearing as if she was about to break into a sweat. She asked us what we would like to eat.

I smiled at her. "A glass of water and a garden salad, please."

"And what type of dressing?"

I smiled awkwardly. "None please." I knew from the odd look that both the waitress and Shizuo were giving me that what I said had sounded odd. Hell, I _still_ thought it sounded odd, and I had been eating salads like that for three years. Not that I regret it or anything. Salads are supposed to be healthy, and then you add all dressings on them and they become like a heart-attack on a lettuce leaf. Really, it's just nasty.

Hastily, I added "I like my vegetables plain."

The waitress looked at me strangely for a moment, but then slowly nodded her head. "… Okay, then…" She looked back at my blonde companion and smiled warily. "And what would you like?"

Shizuo looked down at his menu for a moment. "Uh… some rice pudding and milk, I guess…"

I raised my eyebrows at this while the waitress nervously nodded and took our menus before scurrying off.

"Milk?" I questioned him once the waitress was out of ear-shot. "That's an unusual beverage choice."

Shizuo shrugged his shoulders. "It's good for your bones," he explained. I almost laughed at this; it seemed to me that his bones were already strong enough, if his strength was any way to measure that.

But instead of laughing, I settled for a grin, one that wasn't forced. "Oh, really?"

He grunted in response and looked away from me, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm pretty sure I don't need a lecture from you on strange dieting habits."

At this I really did laugh. "Yeah, I guess you're right on that one," I told him, my grin spreading rather quickly. "But in my defense, a person can hardly find a decently healthy meal in restaurants nowadays, and putting dressing on a salad only gives it about ten times more calories. Next thing you know, you're obese and living on a little wheel chair and need a helicopter to take you to work."

The waitress came back and placed our food in front of us while I was saying this. That was rather quick.

After I had finished my speech, Shizuo's face broke into a faint grin. He seemed a lot less scary while smiling; it looked good on him. "You're crazy."

"Oh, I already know that," I said, picking up my fork and stabbing a piece of lettuce with it. I pointed at him with the fork and then continued. "But, in my defense, I'm an author, so I'm supposed to be at least a _little_ insane."

Shizuo raised an eyebrow at this and moved his head a little. Light began to reflect off of his sunglasses, irritating my eyes slightly. "You're an author?"

At this I nodded my head enthusiastically. "And pretty damn proud of it," I confirmed for him. "Literature is like my _life_. I would have gone to a college and everything for it, but unfortunately, I never got to save up enough money." At this, my smile suddenly dropped. _Money wasn't the only reason I couldn't go to college_. But after realizing that I had suddenly become grumpy for what may have looked like no reason, I smiled again. "But still, writing is one of my favorite hobbies. There's only one thing in the world that I'm more proud to be than an author."

Shizuo nodded slowly at this and used his spoon to dig at some of the rice pudding that he had ordered. "Interesting." He put the pudding in his mouth and swallowed. "And what's that other thing?"

I smiled at this and leaned forward slightly after having bitten the piece of lettuce off my fork. "Hey, tell me, Shizuo, do you have any younger brothers or sisters?"

At this, the blonde stiffened considerably and I could have sworn that from behind his sunglasses, I saw a faint flash of anger. He looked at the ground quickly, but still nodded, telling me that he did.

Now feeling less confident than before, my smile tugged down slightly until I had to force it to stay there. But I still continued for some reason; I had probably figured that I would seem stupid if I stopped right there, and I guess in some ways, that was true. Still, it was a pretty risky move on my part.

"I do, too. She's ten, turning eleven in a couple of weeks. I love her more than anything in the whole world," I told him shyly. "And that's what I'm most proud of: being a big sister. Having a younger sibling is a great privilege if you ask me." I looked at him curiously, carefully scrutinizing him with my green eyes. "Don't you think it's a great thing, Shizuo?"

At this, the blonde's eyes wandered back up to me and all he did was blink a few times. But then that light, boyish smile of his came back. "Yeah, it really is." His fingers twitched on the top of the table for a moment, before he reached up and took the sunglasses off his face and stuffing them into the breast pocket of his vest. "Everything looks so dark with these things on," he grumbled, looking slightly annoyed for a moment.

I couldn't help but notice that his eyes were a very lovely shade of honey brown.

I honestly can't recall much of what happened after that, but the most prominent thing I can remember was towards the end of lunch, when Shizuo had taken a drink of his milk and had a white little mustache just above his upper lip afterwards. It was such a funny sight that I couldn't help but laugh, and Shizuo began to look a little angry with me. I response, I had grabbed a napkin and leaned over, wiping the milk off with it while his face turned slightly pink- I was laughing too hard to tell him what was so funny- and showing him the wet substance. At this, he had only looked away and muttered "whatever."

And I could tell at that moment that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't end up being absolutely friendless in this city.

* * *

><p>I was settling Aurora in for bed that night, tucking in her in the guest bedroom that our aunt and uncle had set out for her while we were staying here. I usually stayed out on the couch during the nights- it was one of those ones that could unfold into a bed that I could never afford- but I always took the time to sit on the side of Aurora's bed and talk with her a little bit, waiting for her to go to sleep before I headed off to bed as well.<p>

It was a nice feeling, being able to talk with Aurora, to be able to know what she's up to in her new life and know that she's doing fine. Apparently, she's quite popular at her new school. All of the other kids have taken a liking to her and she's earned a nickname: Aura-Chan. She's also already been invited to a birthday party from a "kohai" **(1*)** of hers, Akane Awakusu… er… Awakusu Akane…

"So what do you want to get her?" I asked once the subject of the party came up.

"I don't know," Aurora yawned a little and stared at the ceiling. "She said she wanted some American CD's."

"What kinds?"

"I think she said Katie Perry, but I'm not too sure. Her English isn't so good and neither is my Japanese, so it's a little hard to communicate."

I nodded thoughtfully and closed my eyes a little. "Yeah, I guess that I could try and find Katie Perry somewhere; would amazon still do deliveries here?" I opened my eyes and the look she gave me said it all. I sighed and laughed lightly. "No, I suppose they wouldn't. I'll try and get Uncle Richie and Aunt Hiromi to help with the search."

A small little frown had now formed on her face. "Hey, don't worry about," I told her in a rush, afraid that I'd upset her somehow. "I may not be much help around here by myself, but our aunt and uncle have lived her for six years now, so I'm sure that it would be no issue finding just one CD."

Aurora sighed and shook her head, telling me that this was not what was on her mind. "When are we moving out, Autumn?"

I blinked at her slowly. "I'm… Not sure, Aurora," I mumbled, looking down at my lap. "I'm really sorry, but at this rate, it could take a while before I get a job, and even after that, it will take a little longer for me to save up for an apartment." I began to fiddle with my thumbs unconsciously. "But don't worry; I'm sure that we'll be living out on our own again in about two or three months."

What looked like a frown passed over my little sister's face and she sighed silently, leaning her head on the pillow behind her head. Curious, I tilted my head and looked at her as she closed her eyes. "Something up, Aurora?"

She didn't even open her eyes as she responded. "I don't like it here."

I could have sworn that my heart tore into two when she said this. "I'm sure that Tokyo's not that bad once you get used to it," I defended my own actions hastily; afraid of what might happen otherwise. "It's just that we're not used to the city life or Japan yet; that's all. We just need time to-"

"That's not what I'm talking about." Aurora opened her eyes now and gazed at me steadily. "I don't like it _here_." She put emphasis on the last word, her crystal blue eyes never wavering from their indifference. "Living with Hiromi and Richard."

My brows furrowed at this statement. I had never heard her say our aunt and uncle's names aloud, so I had never put any thought into it. But now, hearing her speaking of them as if they were complete strangers proved reasonable enough for me to worry. "Aurora…" I trailed off for a moment, dumbfounded. "You… You do realize that they're our family, right?"

At this, Aurora shook her head. "No, they're not," she insisted. "I never even met them until last week." Now there was a look of slight anger in her face. "They're not my family."

"Yes, they are," I began to panic slightly when I heard her response. She was beginning to scare me and I couldn't help but raise my voice slightly. "Aurora, Uncle Richie is our father's brother, and Aunt Hiromi is his wife; they're the closest thing to family we've got."

"No, they're not," she was raising her voice as well. "As far as I'm concerned, Noah and Elena were never my family, either." I began to stiffen as she used our parents' names so spitefully, with new little blue fires burning so ferociously in her eyes. "Maybe they're _your_ family, but not mine. They never were."

I stood up off the bed suddenly, glaring down at my little sister with the sternest gaze that I could muster. "Aurora," my voice quivered with a combination of both fear and aggravation as I spoke to the small girl lying down in front of me. She had never acted like this before, and my patience and calm demeanor was just about to go flying out the window. This new attitude of hers was just frightening. I didn't like her acting like this. "What brought all of this about all of a sudden?"

"Nothing," my sister answered me, unmoving, her head still resting on her pillow. "I just thought that I should mention it to you." Suddenly, her eyes began to close, and all the previous frustration left her voice. "I'm tired, Autumn," she murmured, a small yawn escaping her lips suddenly.

Just like that, all signs of anger and hostility gone without a trace. It was unusual enough seeing such emotions come from Aurora in the first place, but what was even more shocking was hearing that she had never considered our parents as family. I was sure that I had always made sure that she knew who they were, and that I did love them, and that she would have loved them, too, if not for that horrible accident six years ago.

And, now that I thought about, I had always called our parents "Mom" and "Dad." Never once had I uttered their first names aloud before. So how did she know?

I stared down at her for a moment, unsure of what should be done next. Should I treat the conversation like it never happened? Demand that she wake up and talk with me about it?

No. No, I couldn't talk with her. I was too afraid that she might push me away.

So, hands shaking, I brushed the bangs out of her eyes, as I always do before letting her go to bed, and kissed her forehead. I uttered a quiet "good night" and rushed out of the room as quickly as possible, just in time to see Aunt Hiromi standing there, hurt clear in her dark brown eyes.

I wanted to reach out to her, tell her I was sorry about everything that was just said, do anything to try and keep her from the tears that I knew were going to come, but as soon as she noticed I had left the room, however, she retreated around the corner of the hall in a sprint, leaving me there by myself.

I stood there in the hall for a moment, collecting my jumbled thoughts, before walking stiffly on my legs and moving into the living room. Hiromi had already set up the bed.

Then, numbly, I laid down on the bed, curling into a ball, and tried in vain to fall asleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p>Sometimes I wonder, if I really had tried to work things out with Aurora that night, would things have been better between us? Would we not have distanced from each other just a little bit that night? Would we still be as close as we were only the night before Aurora had said such terrible things? Would things have had the same outcome? Or would it have been even worse?<p>

In the end, there's no way to know that for sure, because a person can never go back in time and fix the mistakes in their lives. As cruel as a fact it may be, it _is_ true. Human beings, no matter what, can never fix these kinds of things, no matter how much they may want to. That is why a person needs to learn for these kinds of mistakes: so they will not be made again. Because if a person could go back and fix every little slipup, what kind of human being would they be? Would they _ever_ improve as a person, having never experienced those penalties?

I suppose not, but even so, a person cannot help but want to go back and fix these kinds of things.

And, maybe, this is what scared me the most. Waking up the next morning and realizing what a horrible mistake I had made when I walked Aurora to school and she refused to look me in the eye. Knowing that I could never go back to that exact moment in time where I could have talked things out with her and fixed everything going on in one night. That was what made things all the more painful.

One small decision, and things had changed between me and my little sister.

That's just how easy it was.

**Noel Note**

**Once again, I'm sorry that this is late and short, and even possibly boring. *Bangs head on desk.* Just please find the kindness within your hearts to forgive me!**

**Quick Fact: For most of the duration of this story, Autumn will be speaking Japanese automatically unless stated otherwise or when she's speaking with another native English-speaker such as Aurora. **

**1*: "Kohai" is kind of like an honorific in Japan, meaning "Junior". Basically, a kohai is a person from the same school as you, but is younger than you, or something along those lines. Typically, your kohai will call you "Sempai," meaning "Senior."**

**I love you for the reviews: RandomCitizen; XxAmi . IzunexX (**Oh, so that was _you_? Lol; great! I was worrying that I got boring or something…**); Brief Silence; Piacine; PaperGangsta**

**I love you for the alerts: XxAmi . IzunexX; animemangafan123; Eryn Goddess of Chaos**

**I love you for the favorites: Axelyssa; PaperGangsta; RandomCitizen; Eryn Goddess of Chaos; April Marciano**

**I thank you all for reading, especially my lovely reviewers! You have no idea how happy reading your comments makes me, so please drop by with a review if you can; I would really appreciate it! In fact, I'd like to see if I can get twenty reviews for this story after this chapter, if at all possible. Seriously, I'd love the six (or more) of you that do review about a hundred times more if this does happen.**

**I'll see you guys next chapter!**

**~Noel-Chan**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright guys! Here's the latest chapter of **_**Insanity**_**! I tried really hard to get this one here early, so I apologize if it doesn't seem as well written as the others. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Dude, just last week I read a statistic somewhere that says that if anyone from the female fan base of Durarara (such as myself) could own this light novel/manga/anime series of epicness, then there's a 99.9% chance that Shizaya or Izuo would have already happened **(1*)**. So the possibility that one of us really **_**does**_** own it is **_**pretty**_** slim, don't you think?**

**Insanity**

**By: Noel14**

**Chapter 5: Poor Thing**

One month later, and things were still pretty much as awkward as if Aurora's conversation with me had happened only the night before.

I sat quietly at the breakfast table, my chopsticks poking at the steamed rice on my plate. It was still a little unusual, using chopsticks rather than a fork, but I've steadily gotten used to it during my stay in Japan.

Hiromi sat across from me, also poking at her food uneasily, but eating some every now and then. She would also steal a few apprehensive glances in Aurora's direction, as if afraid that she was gaining even more disapproval from her, but my sister never noticed, or gave anything away on her face. It was as if she was in her own little world now.

Aurora ate slowly, not really looking up from her plate. She blatantly played with her food, making a smiley face out of her rice and then destroying it to make some sort of new shape. Her face was expressionless, even more so than when we first moved to Tokyo.

I couldn't really blame Hiromi for constantly wanting to glance in Aurora's direction. I could hardly believe what she had said, either, and just because I knew it happened, I don't think I'll be able to look at her the same way again. And this only made me want to watch at her more and more. It was like observing a stranger eating in your own home.

Aunt Hiromi obviously hadn't told Uncle Richie about what Aurora had said last month. He cracked jokes and kept talking, oblivious to the awkward aura around him, and continued eating his food while throwing compliments over to his wife every few seconds.

Honestly, he seemed like the only person at ease in this family any more.

"So, any new luck with a job, Autumn?"

I looked up from my plate to Uncle Richie for a moment, only to retreat my eyes quickly.

Things have been looking pretty down for me recently, and not just in the Aurora department. Within the first week, yeah, I'd had no luck whatsoever, but at least people gave me a _chance_ with an interview. But starting about a month ago, when I asked if they were hiring, people would take one look at me, become pale, and shake their heads, saying something along the lines of "I'm s-sorry, we just filled the position!" or, "What? There was a 'We're hiring sign' out there? HAHAHA! I guess we need to take that down! Sorry! Haha!"

It was _really_ weird, and I felt as if my chances of getting hired were pretty close to zero now. But I didn't want Uncle Richie and Aunt Hiromi to know that.

So I shook my head from side to side. "No luck yet, but I'm sure I'll find something soon. It's just a matter of time, right?" I looked back up at him and tried to look as optimistic as possible, but the brunette didn't look like he was very convinced.

Uncle Richie looked at me suspiciously for a moment and then nodded slowly. "Whatever you say, Autumn…" After saying this, he got up from his seat and walked over to the sink to wash his now empty plate, leaving me at the table with my understandably awkward and nervous aunt, ever-oblivious little sister, and now swirling, confusing thoughts.

_What_…?

Just what was _that_ supposed to mean?

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry, but I've already told you: we're not hiring, Ms."<p>

I groaned at this and was tempted to claw out my hair and scream when I heard this come from the man's mouth. "Yes, yes, I know you already told me, but you had a "now hiring" sign right out there on your store window! So-"

"For the last time, you can't have a job here!"

I could feel the hairs prickling on the back of my neck. _Damn it!_ Why was this happening to me?

My shoulders formed into a square, but I stiffly nodded after taking a deep breath. "Hai," I muttered, lowering my head slightly. I looked away from the man who now had his arms crossed. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to look around the store. I've been in need of some books lately…"

Aurora was supposed to do a book report and wanted my help picking something out.

The manager of the book store I had just attempted to apply for a job at eyed me cautiously for a moment, but then sighed in what looked like defeat. "Of course," he said. "Feel free to look around as much as you want."

I bowed to the man, trying not to let my aggravation and disappointment show. "Arigato!" After this, I headed off into a section of books that looked like they were reserved for manga and small chapter books around my sister's reading level.

I found a book on one of the top shelves and opened it, barely even skimming the words or the summary on the back page. I was too busy thinking about what I would do if I didn't get a job soon.

With the tension that's been going on at the apartment between Aurora and Aunt Hiromi lately, there's a huge chance that our arrangements won't hold together for much longer. Adding on to that, I can't keep depending on the money I used to sell all of our possessions as a means of paying rent forever; I'll run out of it at some point if I don't find somewhere to work, and then what would happen?

Would Aunt Hiromi and Uncle Richie kick us out? I doubted it, but there was always the possibility. And then would we be living on the streets as hobos? Would I have to beg for change or polish people's shoes and do other humiliating work? Or would I have to start working for the Japanese mafia- what did they call them? _Yakuba_? - just so that we could get by?

No, no, no, _NO_!

I hadn't even noticed that I was beginning to tear at a page in the book I was holding at these thoughts until I heard a gasp from behind me and caught myself in the act.

I carefully closed the book, sandwiching it between my hands, and craned my neck around to see two people standing by a shelf filled to the brim with manga and light novels staring at me. One was a boy who looked slightly Caucasian, yet a bit Japanese as well, with what appeared to be dyed blonde hair and very, very narrow eyes. The other person was a girl that looked around the same age wearing a long black dress, including a little cap that sat on top of her dark hair. What I could see of her hair was fairly short, although I couldn't see most of it. She probably had it under her hat or something.

The two were talking quietly to one another, and I couldn't make out what they were saying, but their whispers were enthusiastic and they seemed to be having what appeared to be a heated friendly debate. They kept glancing in my direction every few seconds.

All I did was stare at the duo for a moment, completely clueless as to what I was supposed to do, but then I shook my head and slowly walked over to them, my hands and the book hanging limply at my side. As if on cue, their heads turned towards me and they stared with creepy little grins on their faces...

I swallowed nervously. "Do you two need something?"

The girl giggled mischievously at my question and waved with her hand. "Oh, no, no! We just saw you, and thought of something~."

The boy also chuckled and looked at me through his narrow eyes. "Yeah, that's it! We don't have a problem with _you_."

I looked at the two of them questionably for a moment, suddenly feeling more suspicious than before, and my grip on the small paper-back book in my hand tightened. Oddly enough, holding onto a book always could soothe me somehow. "Could you please stop looking at me, then? It's getting a little creepy…"

"Yeah, sure," the boy said, nodding, but suddenly he and the girl drew in closer to me with excited smiles on their faces. "But first, would you mind if we asked you something?"

My face became blank for a moment and all I could do was blink. "Uh… What kinds of questions?"

"We've only got one~" the girl seemed to be squirming in excitement. "OK, so do you read manga? And if so, have you ever thought about cosplaying? Because we thought you would make a _great_ Kikyo or Misaki!"

_What…? _

I was thoroughly confused by this and furrowed my brow. "Uh… No, I don't read manga, but… What's a Kikyo and a Misaki?"

The two looked at me for a moment, tilting their heads slightly, before turning to one another again. "No, no! I change my mind!" The boy said to her. "She looks like she would make a _much_ better Horo **(2*)**!"

The girl gasped, her eyes bright and wide. "Oh, you're _right_, Yumachi!" She slapped her head as she said this. "How could I not see it when she's looking right at me in the face? It's so obvious!"

They began to elaborate on this more to one another, their voices became more and more excited, and they began to talk faster, so much so that I quickly became confused and lost track of what they were saying. Words swirled in my mind until I almost became dizzy, and I began to slowly back away, taking small steps, in hopes that they wouldn't notice that I was leaving. I was just about to turn around and run out of the book store when-

"Oi, Yumasaki, Karisawa! Stop harassing her!" I turned my head to see a man wearing a cap on top of his head running towards us with an annoyed scowl on his face. Behind him came another boy with chin-length brown hair who also looked exasperated.

"Dotachin!" The girl's eyes lit up at the sight of the man, whose brow twitched at the sound of the name.

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" The man asked with a sigh. "And leave that poor girl alone; I'm sure she has better things to do than be compared to your manga characters." He looked over at me. "Sorry if these two were bothering you. They get carried away with their love for manga sometimes..."

From where I stood, I scratched the back on my head a bit and blushed. "Uh… no, they were fine." I looked down, embarrassed. "I just got a little confused at what they were saying; that's all… I still don't quite have the grasp of Japanese yet and they were talking so quickly…"

The man nodded understandingly at this, and the boy that had come in with him began to drag the two people that had been talking nonsense to me only a moment ago out of the store. "Yeah, I thought you looked a little lost in here, so I figured you might be foreign."

It almost felt as if someone had dropped something on my head.

Was it really _that_ obvious?

I almost sighed, but refrained from doing so, and instead unconsciously moved the book in my grasp over my chest, holding it there with my hands, as if to protect myself.

The man held out his hand to me with a smile. "My name's Kadota Kyohei, and those two back there were Yumasaki Walker and Karisawa Erika. Once again, I'm sorry if they were bothering you; Saburo and I usually try to keep them under control but they managed to slip away from us this time…"

I studied his hand for a moment before taking it in my own, still holding the book with one hand, and sheepishly smiled at him while shaking my head lightly. "Like I said, they were fine, just a little talkative. It's no big deal." I let go of his hand and bowed lightly. "And it's nice to meet you. I'm Sanders Autumn."

Kyohei put his fingers beneath his chin thoughtfully after letting go of my hand. "_Sanders_… You know, that sounds a little familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

I was confused for a moment, but then laughed a second later, realizing what he had meant. "Oh, no, but you might know my aunt, Sanders _Hiromi_. She models a lot around here."

A faint look of recognition flashed in his face. "Oh, yeah! That's that model that one of my friends is always talking about. You're related to her?"

I shook my head, forcing a smile to my face. "No, not by blood, anyway. She married my uncle a few years back, though, so she's family nonetheless." Even if my sister denies it, it _is_ true. _She's our family, and Aurora needs to accept her as such at one point or another. _I could feel my fingers curling around the rim of the book that I was holding…

As I was dwelling over these bitter thoughts, Kyohei smiled. "Cool. I'll be sure to tell Saburo that I met a close relative of Sanders Hiromi, then." He chuckled. "He'll get pretty jealous at that. The only two things that come above her on his list of favorite things are his van and Hijiribe Ruri." **(3*)**

I chuckled lightly at this. "Sanders Hiromi _and_ Hijiribe Ruri?" I had only heard of Hijiribe Ruri through movie trailers and music playing from stores at the time, but from what I could tell, she was a fairly popular make-up artist just starting out in an acting and musical career as well. If you had asked me at the time, I would have said that she seemed like a rather… apathetic Japanese version of Miley Cyrus or something. "I guess this Saburo person is really into the typical pop culture, then?"

Kyohei scratched the back of his head, looking a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that, although Yumasaki and Karisawa are much worse with their love for manga…" He paused for a moment and looked at me oddly. "Hey, I'm sorry, but were you going to buy that book?" He pointed to the paper-back book that I was currently holding in my hand rather tightly.

I looked down at it and my face paled considerably. I had been holding onto it so tightly that a part of the spine was beginning to flake , and the cover had a corner folded back from my fingers playing with the edge too much. "Ah, damn it!" I cursed to myself in English. I hated it when I did this to books. It always made me feel guilty, even if it was horribly written… "Well, I guess I'm going to _have_ to buy it now," I told Kyohei in disheartened Japanese, sighing as I did so. "I guess this book would be fine, though..." I trailed off, sighing again.

The man smiled some, as if amused. "Alright, then. I got to get going now." He began to walk off towards the exit, waving to me over his shoulder. "I'll see you around, Sanders."

_Sanders_… Man, that's really going to take some getting used to.

I waved back, even though he couldn't see. "Yeah, see you."

When he was out of the store, I sighed to myself and looked down at the newly beaten book in my hands. I seriously couldn't believe that I had actually done this to it simply because I was feeling slightly uncomfortable. Poor thing…

Now lacking in some much needed self-confidence, I walked to the cash register and got ready to pay up for the poor, defenseless book that I had just mercilessly damaged without even realizing it.

* * *

><p>Aurora had been hanging out with Kida Masaomi a lot lately.<p>

Ever since our second week in Ikebukuro, they had discovered that their schools are actually pretty close to each other, and that they generally head in the same direction when going home. We had found out one day when I was late for picking Aurora up from school, and then we bumped into him at our first turn around the corner. It was a shock to all of us, but it wasn't necessarily a bad kind of shock, either.

We had some catching up to do after that. Masaomi had told us that since he had last seen us, he had fallen in love with thirteen other girls, but that there was still a door left open for me. I had replied by telling him that maybe, if I found a job soon, I might consider if he promised to grow about a foot taller and didn't act like as much of a pervert. I wasn't being serious, of course- I found so much as the thought of dating someone at the time (especially someone that hadn't even attended a day of high school yet) to be utterly ridiculous and disgusting, almost like cheating, in my opinion- but after I said this, he had gotten all excited and offered to start walking Aurora home so that I would have more time to search for jobs and such.

And what could I say? I _did_ need more time to myself for job hunting, and Aurora seemed to be fond of him.

So because of this deal we made, I've been able to search for jobs from seven in the morning to about seven or eight at night, which I would say gave me plenty of time to search for employment _and_ get to know the city at the same time. Granted, I might have to end up going on a date with Masaomi if he suddenly dies down on his perverse ways and has a sudden growth spurt, but I'm sure that we _all_ know neither of these is going to be happening any time soon.

And Masaomi knows this, as well. Still, the "playboy" had been walking Aurora home for about three or four weeks now while I stay out later than usual, scavenging the city for any job possible. And because of this, Aurora seems to be in a lighter mood every time I see her, which causes for suspicion. I think that she might have a small crush on Masaomi or something, but every time I bring up the subject, she just plays dumb.

But, whatever floats her boat. I'd probably get it out of her at one point or another.

I've been learning Ikebukuro's famous landmarks recently, like Sunshine 60, and I have also been memorizing where certain streets are by small details that I can remember (a piece of blue gum at the base of a street lamp, a wall of graffiti, an oddly bent street sign…), so navigating through the area had become an easier task for me around my one-month milestone.

But unfortunately, I was also running out of places to explore. There were literally only about nine or ten streets left that I hadn't applied for jobs at yet, so my chances in Ikebukuro were running very low, and at the rate I was going, I figured that I may need to start looking over in Shibuya or Shinjuku soon if I was going to find any form of employment.

But what I hadn't thought was that my job would actually come to _me_.

It was another one of those days where I was running low on morale and had to practically drag my feet along with the rest of my body, as I had very little drive to keep going. The sun was threatening to fall over the horizon and leave me in total darkness at any moment, but I had kept moving, anyway. I just wanted to check out one more store before heading home for the night, and was slowly making my way towards a little souvenir shop located snugly between two large apartment buildings when, from the corner of my eyes, I caught sight of something. It was a silver ring, refracting off light from the setting sun just enough for me to see that someone was trying to grab my shoulder just before they could catch me by surprise.

In response to the glinting ring, I had jumped forward and turned around quickly before the person actually _could_ grab me and took up a defensive position, putting my fists up in front of my face and keeping my legs spread apart for balance. Afterwards, I mustered up a glare and told the person to "Keep your hands off of me!" in a stern voice.

I had thought that someone was trying to drag me into an alleyway or something, and so I was ready for a fight, but I hadn't expected a familiar face, nor for that person to burst out laughing at my reaction.

"Whoa~! No need to be so _aggressive_, Autumn-Chan!"

It was that guy with the reddish-brown eyes that I met on my first day in Ikebukuro. I couldn't remember his name, but I _could_, however, recall his all-too friendly attitude and the way he seemed to practically dissect my mind with the way he spoke. Of all the people I wanted to talk to at the moment, it definitely wasn't him.

I watched him snicker quietly to himself as I lowered my fighting stance, becoming slightly uncomfortable for some reason. Maybe it was just the fact that he derived too much amusement for himself out of me, but I didn't really like him very much at all. He personally gave me the creeps.

"What do you want?" I asked him in a flat voice, trying not to sound too rude, but not very friendly at the same time. I wanted to make a point that I wasn't going to keep acting nice around him if he would act like an ass around me.

The man smiled at me eerily, something that almost made me shudder on reflex. "Well, I just wanted to say 'Hi.' I haven't spoken to you in over a month, after all."

I don't know why, but the way he said the word "spoken" made me feel a little anxious. I stood there awkwardly, beginning to wring my hands nervously. "Well… Hi, then." My legs itched to start moving, but walking off right now would be really impolite and I didn't want to come off as a _total_ bitch. "Is there anything else that you wanted? I was kind of in the middle of something…"

"Well, yes, actually," he smiled at me, placing his hands in the pockets of his jacket casually. "I came here to make you an offer, and after hearing what I have to say, I don't think you'll be so busy anymore."

I blinked at him a couple of times, but then glared. "You tracked me down in the middle of _Ikebukuro_? Do you realize how big this place is? It could have taken you ages to find me, and I've only spoken to you _once_. What makes to think that I'll even listen to whatever you have to say?" I was tired and disheartened, and so I was also losing patience rather quickly. It wasn't my fault that Ikebukuro had chewed me up and spat me back out on several occasions in the past month.

But the man's smile never wavered once. "Well, it was pretty easy finding you, and I thought we hit it off pretty well, actually. I thought you'd be _happy_ to see my face again."

My mouth gaped open for a moment. Was he really _that_ conceited? "I don't even remember your _name_!" I argued.

At this, he sighed and rolled his coppery colored eyes out into the streets around us, a slight smile still gracing his lips. "Well, that's disappointing… Not that I actually _expected_ you to remember that, though."

Was that supposed to be an _insult_?

I was about to open my mouth, but then his eyes rolled back over to me. "_Orihara_ _Izaya_," he said in slow syllables, as if talking to a small child. He was so much taller than me that I might have actually appeared to be one through his eyes, though. "You might want to try and remember that name, _Sanders Autumn_, because I'm here to offer you employment."

Upon hearing the word "employment," I could feel my shoulders stiffen, but then I felt some sort of relief floating around in my chest. _A job_… Oh, how long I've been waiting to hear those words! I could almost jump around in glee and ignore the smug look on Izaya's face, I was so happy.

However, I tried to remain professional, although my signs of hostility melted almost completely on my own and my eyes were aglow with excitement that matched the grin that now adorned my face. "What kind of job?"

Izaya's coppery eyes looked down at me arrogantly, his smirk still tugging at his lips. "Well, I've been looking for a personal assistant lately. It would pay well, and pretty much all you would need to do is run around doing chores and such for me."

I raised an eyebrow at this, my smile suddenly dropping again. "Well, that doesn't sound suspicious at all," I said sarcastically.

The black haired man laughed at me for a moment. "Well, I'll try to keep you out of anything illegal, so feel no need to worry in that department. And I can _assure_ you that I'm not a pervert or anything, so nothing sexual is included in the job description." Suddenly, he winked, causing me to blush lightly, and added, "Although, if that's what you want, I could make an exception."

I looked away from him at his suggestive tone and grumbled lightly. "Well, you sure _sound_ like a pervert to me…"

Izaya chuckled again, then pulled something out of his coat pocket. "Yes, well, the offer is still open. And I'm in no hurry for you to start right away, so feel free to take as much time as you need to think about it." He took my hand and opened it up, placing a piece of paper in my palm. "That's my business card. It has my number and such for whenever you need to get into contact with me." He closed my fingers around the paper and backed away, but not before sweeping a finger over the ring that rested on my left hand and giving me a knowing look.

And suddenly, I felt nervous again, seeing the way he stared at me, with the eyes of a predator that has just found a way to ensnare its prey in a trap. I was almost tempted to crumple the paper in my hands and just run away, but I thought better of it when I thought of how hard it would be to find another offer like this.

I looked down steadily. "Arigato, Izaya."

He nodded, looking amused. "You're welcome." He paused for a moment, but then started to speak again, only differently. "Oh, yes, and Autumn?"

I looked up as he suddenly switched to speaking English. Confused, I followed suit. "Yes?"

Izaya leaned forward and bended down, putting his mouth close to my ear and spoke quietly. "Please, do try to brush up on your Japanese. It kind of sucks."

Hearing him say this in perfect English only made me blush even more.

Izaya pulled back a little to look at my face, and then burst out laughing. "And look at that! Your face is almost as red as your hair now!" He had switched back to Japanese, but I still felt embarrassed and looked away.

"Shut up."

The man that had caused such embarrassment merely laughed again and shook his head, backing away from me. "Well, I have to go now, so I can't really talk anymore, but remember, just call me whenever you make up your mind about the job." He began to back away more now, and waved to me. "Oh, and Autumn-Chan, make sure to tell Aura-Chan that I said 'Hi,' OK?" With that said, he turned around and disappeared into the crowd before I had time to react.

I watched the spot that he had just disappeared into anxiously, thinking of his parting words. "Aurora?" I murmured to myself. "Why would he…?" I trailed off, shaking my head.

No… he was just strange. There was no reason to look too deeply into his dialogue.

Carefully, I opened my hand and looked at the card he had laid there.

**Orihara Izaya**

**Information Broker**

Underneath was a phone number, but I mainly looked at what was written above it. "Information Broker." Was it even very smart to write that on a card that anyone could get a hold of? But, oh, God! That sounded so suspicious that I couldn't even describe it in words! "Information Broker"! No wonder he said "I'll _try_ not to get you into anything _too_ illegal." Allowing myself to be associated with him would probably be enough of a crime as it was.

But I was really desperate for a job…

I folded the paper neatly and stuffed it into the purse sitting on my shoulder as I began to walk my way back home, not even bothering to wonder why he would choose _me_ to work under him out of all the people in Tokyo. It was too confusing, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much I needed some form of work.

But, then, he was an information broker. It could be dangerous to get tangled up in that sort of thing! So, then, why was I even considering this? It was ridiculous! How was it that I was actually _thinking_ about taking him up on that offer?

And the answer to this was simple: Because Orihara Izaya had already ensnared me in his web and forced me into this sick game of his. I was already involved in all of this, because of the thought of all the danger that he had just offered me.

I had told my sister when we moved here that I wanted for our lives to be less boring, and here stood this man only a moment ago, offering me all of this on a metaphorical platter. How could I possibly refuse?

And two nights later, right after Orihara Izaya hung up from his phone call with me, he had walked over to the Go board lying out on his coffee table and placed a black pawn on the corner of it, humming merrily to himself as he did so.

**Noel Note**

**Twenty-one reviews! Yeeeesssssss! That's, like, about 5.25 reviews per chapter! Woot! I feel sooooooo happy right now; I just cannot express how amazingly overjoyed you wonderful, wonderful reviewers have made me. (:D)**

**Seriously, thanks a ton for your support and patience, guys! I know I'm a slow updater and everything, but reading all the reviews you people give me make me **_**so**_** happy. I just love you people!**

**Quick Fact: Hm… I'm quickly running out of these things, so I may have to stop them soon… Anyway, this has _nothing_ to do with this chapter, but I chose Colorado as Autumn's original home because I've been there a few times and trust me; it is beautiful and wonderful in every single way (well, to me, anyway). I love it there with all of my heart!**

**1*: You know, I also found a statistic that says that about 73.628% of statistics are false, or just made up. ;)**

**2*: Kikyo is a priestess from **_**Inuyasha**_** and Misaki is the main character from **_**Kaichou wa Maid-Sama**_**. Horo (or "Holo" in the dub) is a sort of goddess from the anime **_**Spice and Wolf**_**. Erika and Walker were actually seen carrying around a cardboard cutout of Horo on the first episode of Durarara!**

**3*: RURI-CHAN~~~~! Sorry, I just had to give this awesome girl a shout-out. :P **_**READ THE LIGHT NOVELS! **_**Sorry for the advertising!**

**I love you about a hundred-thousand-million times more than usual for the reviews: XxAmi . IzunexX; Eryn Goddess of Chaos; DreamingSpirit; AwesomeEraser; Reaping Reader; Panda Insomniac; Misstaken**

**Haha. :D Reading those reviews totally made my day. Thanks again, guys!**

**But don't worry; I still love you for the alerts: ollie-wodge; gwendolyn-sama**

**And I still love you for the favorite, too, Sky'sFire.**

**So, once again, thank you guys so much! Please review and feel free to subscribe or favorite, too. Also, I have a poll on my profile concerning Aurora on my profile, if you wanna check it out. I'm just curious. :P **

**I'll see you guys next chapter, so bye for now!**

**~Noel-Chan**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, guys! Thanks so much for your reviews and such (even though not one person voted on that poll… but whatever.)! You guys are awesome! OK, now, we get a little snippet of Aurora (as well as others) and how her life is doing, as well as a little look inside her head. This chapter is mainly just (supposed to be) humorous, so not much of real importance happens here. I hope you guys like it.**

**Disclaimer: I can't really think of any witty ways to say that I don't own Durarara at the moment. :/**

**Insanity**

**By: Noel14**

**Chapter 6: Picking Up Chicks**

"What do you say, Aurora? Wanna help me pick up some chicks?"

Aurora stared at Masaomi, her eyes half-lidded as he made this suggestion. It was about into their third or fourth week of him walking her home, and when Masaomi, that day, had told her that he wanted to spend some time at the park, she had been a bit suspicious, but agreed nonetheless. Upon hearing his actual reason for him wanting to take her there, the young redheaded girl didn't have much of a reaction, but made it clear, however that she didn't want to.

She lazily raised an eyebrow at him. "And _why_ should I do that, exactly?"

At her lack of enthusiasm, the blonde teen smiled cheekily and responded in an innocent tone, "Because you love me." He paused for a moment and cocked his head to the side, then continued on thoughtfully. "Well, platonically, of course. I'm sure that if you liked me that way, it'd make me look like a pedophile and your sister would be out to kill me."

"Platonically?"

"Let me rephrase that: Because I'm your best friend."

All Aurora bothered to do for a minute was stare at him as if he lacked any common sense, and then sighed. "Whatever," she muttered. "How am I supposed to help you attract women?"

Masaomi ignored the girl's glum attitude. "All you have to do is walk up to girls and let them swoon over your adorableness. Then tell them about you fantastic Niisan. That will be me, by the way," he told her, patting the top of her red hair. "You think you can do that, Aura-Hime?"

"Aura-Hime **(1*)**?"

At Aurora's questioning tone, Masaomi sighed. "Why must you make things so difficult?" He asked. "Aura-Hime is a cute nickname, right? Doesn't it kind of sound like something that a sweet older brother would call their imouto?"

"No," Aurora deadpanned. "It sounds kind of creepy, actually. Kind of like something that a person would call me if I was being stalked by them."

In response to the younger girl's statement, Masaomi jumped at least a foot away and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Why, I've never been so offended! 'Aura-Hime' is perfectly adorable nickname! It is _not_ creepy in the slightest!"

Aurora's calm demeanor cracked and she grinned a little in amusement. "Why exactly do I have to do this again?"

The blonde "playboy" smiled widely and put his hands on his hips. "Because," he explained, "I want to look like a nice big brother so all the girls will look at me and think, 'Oh, look, that little girl there is so cute! And she looks says she has a really good big brother, too! _Kya_~! He must be a hunk!'" Masaomi's imitation of the female voice was humorously very masculine. Aurora attempted not to make a face. "And then they'll all fall in love with my good looks and charms and we'll live happily ever after. It's _perfect_!"

Aurora decided to not argue, but to simply humor him. "_OK, then_."

Masaomi smiled and ruffled the top of her hair as if she really was his little sister. "OK, so you lost a bracelet," he told her. "So you go up and ask some girls if they've seen it. When they ask what it looks like, tell them that it's silver, and that your wonderful Niisan gave it to a few years ago, and that you really love it. And then, when they ask about your Niisan, just make me sound all cool and stuff, OK?"

The redheaded girl blinked a few times and then nodded hesitantly.

With a mischievous smile, Masaomi wrapped an arm around Aurora's shoulders and turned her to the side, pointing out in the direction of a group of three girls. They were huddled in a close circle, talking with one another and laughing. "There are our targets, Aura-Hime," the blonde teen whispered.

"_Still sounds creepy_…"

Masaomi ignored the younger girl's quiet comment and inconspicuously walked around the group and sat on a bench somewhere behind them before making a hand motion for Aurora to go. With a heavy sigh, the young American girl began to make her way to the group of girls, averting her eyes in an embarrassed manner as she did so.

The girls in the group looked like they must have been foreign to Japan as well, as one looked to be a natural blonde, the one standing next to her looked Indian, and the last one seemed to have more of a Chinese look to her. They also spoke in strange accents similar to Autumn's and Aurora's, although it sounded like they were a lot more grammatically accurate, so they may have been living in Tokyo for a few years.

They also happened to look around twenty-five years old. _Masaomi sure knows how to pick them…_

Aurora was about to tug on the Indian woman's sleeve to get her attention when she heard someone shout towards the group's direction and turned to see another Caucasian running towards them. She was wearing all black and red, and had short, fluffy brown hair that bounced with every move she made.

The girl bounded up to them and stopped in front of the blonde girl. She wasn't really smiling at the group of girls she had just joined, but she didn't exactly look like she was bored or miserable, either. Strange. "Sorry, I'm late, guys, but-" The brunette girl stopped speaking when she spotted Aurora standing behind the Indian girl. She jerked a thumb in the redhead's direction with a scowl on her face. "Ah… Vira, what's with the little person? You know I don't get along well with kids."

At the bench behind the group, Aurora could clearly spot Masaomi looking panicked at the "_I don't get along with kids_" comment. Now if only he could see the face this woman was giving her…

"_Huh?_"

The other women turned around to look in Aurora's direction, looking confused. The Indian woman she was standing beside, whom she now believed to be named Vira, raised her eyebrows at her, looking slightly concerned. "Hey… What're you doing over here? You lost or something?"

"Uh…"

The women stared at her expectantly. From his bench, Masaomi waved to his young friend, looking hopeful again, and mouthed the words 'the plan!'

The redheaded girl's gaze wandered back over to the group of women. "I, uh…" She furrowed her eyebrows, trying to remember what the blonde had told her before she walked up to these people. "I lost…" What was it that she supposedly lost? _Her dignity_? She almost laughed at the thought. Her eyes darted back in Masaomi's direction. The boy, in response, mouthed another word back to her. "Bracelet." She looked back at the women indifferently again. "I lost my bracelet."

Three out of four of the women looked at a complete loss for what to say.

One out of four of these women simply waved off her statement. "Sorry," the brunette said, waving a hand at her. "I haven't seen any bracelets around here." She grabbed the hand of the blonde woman and began to drag her off with a large smile. "Now come on guys, I feel like eating somewhere _nice_ for a change! Now that Anna has her green card, we need to celebrate!"

Masaomi nearly cried out in disappointment.

"Luce," the Chinese woman sighed at her friend's antics. "We can't just leave her here," she argued. "I do believe that we now have a responsibility to help her. She's just a kid, and it doesn't look like she has any guardians with her…"

Luce pouted and dropped the blonde woman's wrist, but in the background, Masaomi was pumping his fists into the air in premature victory.

"You're so responsible, Hua," the newly proclaimed Luce grumbled. "It's such a pain." Hua smiled in pride in response.

The blonde girl looked down at Aurora in an embarrassed, almost apologetic, fashion and smiled shyly. "Are your parents here?"

The redheaded girl scowled at the question. "No." _They never were_…

Nobody really seemed to notice the child's deep frown, nor did they pick up on her dark undertone. Vira snorted irritably. "How irresponsible! Even _I_ know not to leave a kid at a park on their own!"

"Well, not everyone's as smart as you, Vira," came the sharp retort from the (as Aurora has officially dubbed her) _evil_ brunette.

Vira's face quickly became distorted with anger as she turned on to Luce. "Well, how about you shut up?" She growled out to the woman that was now only feet away from her.

Luce scoffed at the Indian's threat and quirked an eyebrow provocatively. "Was that supposed to _intimidate_ me?"

"Go die in a hole!"

"Guys, stop fighting!" The blonde woman looked panicked at the sudden argument that broke between Vira and Luce and tried to act as a peacemaker. The only problem was that she spoke softly, and so neither of the two other women actually _heard_ what she had to say.

"Leave them alone, Anna. It's not worth getting in the middle of their arguments." Hua shook her head and buried her face in her hands. "Really, I'm surrounded by morons…"

Aurora watched the four, confused, and just stood there, a silent background to the loud and colorful scene before her. Two women arguing dramatically, one trying to break up the fight in vain, and the other shaking her head at their stupidity. It was a rare sight to behold, indeed.

While the other three were involved with the argument, Hua, the Chinese woman walked over to Aurora. "Where did you last see it?"

The redhead blinked. "See what?"

The Chinese woman attempted not to lose her composure or sigh. _Patience is the key…_ "The bracelet you lost," she prompted.

Another blank stare. "… Oh, _that_ bracelet."

It seemed to come to her as if it had never been of any importance which, to Aurora, it really wasn't, since said bracelet never existed and the only reason she was standing there was because of Masaomi's insistence.

"I don't know where I last saw it," the young American girl continued on, uninterested. "All I know is it's silver, and that my Neesan made it for me."

Masaomi had never wanted to smack himself as much as he did at that very moment. **(2*)**

Hua stared at Aurora for a moment, blinking with a questioning face despite the noise from the argument behind them. "Ok… That's nice her, then…" It became apparent that she no longer wanted to even _know_ what was going on through the younger girl's mind.

Suddenly, with a flash of yellow, Masaomi entered the scene, taking hold of one of Aurora's arms with a wary grin stretched across his face. This plan was going way too far off course for him to keep the operation going. It was time for him to abandon the mission.

"Oh, _there_ you are!" He greeted Aurora loudly with pat on her shoulder, tugging on her arm to signal to her that it was time to leave. The redhead complied with his request, moving to the side slightly. The blonde boy looked over to the Chinese woman that was now standing across from him with a confused look on her face. The other three foreign women from the side looked over to him, pausing in their fight for the moment in order to get a look at what was happening. "Hey, I found that necklace-"

"Bracelet." Aurora corrected him with a deadpanned expression.

"-Bracelet, whatever!" Masaomi laughed at this, patting her head again. "I found it, so we can get going, alrightie?"

"… 'K."

The teenager now looked at the women and smiled flirtatiously. "Well, sorry to disturb you ladies, but we've gotta go~!" With a final wave farewell and a wink of the eye, he took hold of Aurora's shoulders and began to lead her away from the scene. And, just when he thought that he was out of ear shot, he sighed dramatically. "Well, I guess I have to get you home now, _Aura-Hime_. Why must our time together come to an end so soon?"

Honestly, he had only said the nickname as a sort of joke to lighten the mood, or maybe get the younger girl to smile some, since she hardly ever did around him. However, someone else noticed. And that someone didn't take the use of the name very kindly.

"'Aura… _Hime'_?" The pair turned towards the sound of the disgusted voice and discovered Vira looking at them with a disturbed look on her face. "What the hell, man? Are you a stalker or something?"

"Huh?" Masaomi looked slightly surprised by the accusation. "Oh, no, that's just a cute little nickname for her!"

"And that's _exactly_ what a stalker would say!" Now the others had joined up with the Indian woman, who was pointing at the blonde boy with an accusing finger. Luce began to crack her knuckles with a sour look on her face.

Masaomi put his hands up in defense and attempted to assure the women that he was not a stalker. However, in the process of this, the blonde woman, with a very worried expression on her face, had managed to sneak past him and walk with Aurora towards the police station.

"Wait, no! I'm supposed to be babysitting her!"

"_Of course_ you were, Mr. Stalker!"

Heiwajima Shizuo watched this exchange with a slightly annoyed expression on his face, a lit cigarette in his mouth. "The hell is going on over there?" He muttered, slowly taking a drag on his cigarette while his new boss and old middle school sempai, Tanaka Tom, studied the scene with composure from his side.

"Looks like there's some sort of… misunderstanding," he answered him, taking a drag on his own cigarette as he did so. His dreadlocks swayed ever so slightly as the wind blew, and so he had to take a moment to wipe them away from his face in order to properly see what was actually going on.

The blonde man only stayed to watch the disastrous scene for another minute before calmly replying. "Alright." He shoved his hands back into his pockets and started moving on with Tom right at his heels.

The only reason that Shizuo had paused from his work for the moment was because he spotted the little redheaded girl and felt a small spark of recognition in his head. It might have been the cherry red hair, or the same way her nose twitched slightly whenever she blinked, but the child did faintly remind him of… someone. That one girl, from about a month ago… He couldn't remember her name, probably because it was an English word… Whatever. The name would come to him again eventually.

Shizuo hadn't really been in contact with the redheaded girl since lunch that day, but he could still faintly remember her in the back of his head. After all, it wasn't very often that girl's offered to go and eat lunch with him… Or even do _anything_ with him, for that matter. Women usually tried to steer clear of the "Fortissimo of Ikebukuro," so when one actually took the time to try and get to know him, they stuck in his memory for a while, even though he was never particularly good with names and couldn't put labels under their faces.

But this girl just really… stuck out. Now, he could have been wrong, but Shizuo could have _sworn_ that she was actually _flirting_ with him, which comes as a surprise since girls never flirt with him. But… he couldn't help wondering, was that how girls treated guys that they like? She laughed genuinely, which was a nice change from the awkward laughter he usually heard from other girls that talked to him, and her smile seemed to be nice enough. But then she wiped that milk off of his freaking _face_ for him when she could have just _said_ something. And that might have crossed the line just a tad bit too much.

Then again, he's had very little experience with women in the first place (and he hardly thought that Celty would count, since she never acted exceedingly girly around him), so it may have been how all normal girls act around guys, but it just felt weird… and kind of nice at the same time. He almost felt a little normal, actually.

The only things that would have made the moment better were if she happened to actually _get_ some dressing on that lettuce wedge she decided to call a salad and suddenly began to speak better Japanese, because listening to her talk was practically giving him a headache. Not that he didn't enjoy speaking with her, but Kami, her accent was almost as annoying as Simon could be when he and Dennis were having a discount sale on their freakishly weird sushi. He could have almost sworn that she was speaking a totally different language until he realized that she was just misplacing and mispronouncing certain words and phrases.

Well, at least she was trying, unlike those jerky tourists that went around Japan, expecting everyone they came across to know English.

Shizuo stopped walking as they came to the front of an old apartment building and Tom walked up next to him. "They said he's on room 309."

The blonde man nodded and began climbing the stairs of the building, listening to the stairs creak uneasily underneath his weight. Obviously, the place needed a to have some home improvements done on it, but in all honesty, it wasn't too much worse than the place that he was currently living in. The only differences he saw were that this place needed a new paint job and that his apartment complex was missing a railing on their stairs.

After about a minute of looking through the place, the pair of debt collectors finally found the door with the number "309" printed on it in sloppy black paint. Shizuo stood to the side, fingers curled over his cigarette while Tom knocked on the door.

Actually, that night Shizuo had lunch with that American girl was the same night that Tom had found him. He had been fired once again, because that damned flea, Izaya, had pitted the blame for one of his own crimes on the blonde about a week beforehand, and in the middle of the mix-up he was let off. Shizuo particularly _liked_ that job as a bartender, too, so the first thing he did when the cops let him off the hook was try to settle down and not mourn over the fact that he broke his promise of keeping his job to Kasuka…

And what was the first thing he saw when he exited the police station, you may ask? That Izaya bastard messing around on _his_ turf.

At the very sight of his archenemy, Shizuo had gone into a fit of pure, unadulterated rage and threw a vending machine at the informant, almost hitting some girl on the street on the process…

Shizuo took the cigarette out of his mouth.

He was so angry with Izaya that when the fight was going on, he hardly even noticed the woman's presence, almost like she was some sort of fly in his way, so he didn't really look at her much, but… When he thought hard, he thought could have sworn that she had cherry red hair.

The ex-bartender had very little time to dwell on this new discovery, however, as Tom's voice broke into his thoughts. "He's not answering."

Shizuo turned his head in his friend's direction. "Want me to break down the door?" Sometimes their clients would simply hide out in their houses without answering the phone or getting the door when they didn't have the money to pay them. As Shizuo had learned in the past few weeks of working with Tom, this was actually quite a common occurrence.

The debt collector frowned, thinking the question over in his mind for a moment before shaking his head. "Nah," he said. "He's not due for another three days, so we don't need to get him today, anyway." He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "He's the last one with payments due this week, so we should probably take the rest of the rest of the day off. You wanna get some dinner?"

"Sure." The blonde put out his cigarette and followed Tom as he walked away from the apartment complex.

The walk was, as expected, mostly quiet, as journeys involving Heiwajima Shizuo usually are, but it was a comfortable kind of quiet. Shizuo was fond of Tom, no doubt about that, and even though they weren't quite up to conversing with one another as much as friends usually do yet, they both still found the time to talk about stuff every now and then, and that barrier that had slowly built up since their middle school graduation was slowly beginning to melt away. The best thing was that Tom wasn't a freak of nature like Shinra, either. At least Shizuo had a normal friend now…

"What do you think about Russia sushi?"

Shizuo looked over at his old friend and smiled a little, relieved by the fact that even a person as abnormal as him can be normal every once in a while. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p>When Aurora got home that night, she hadn't expected Autumn to be there as well, but she was. Granted, she wasn't right there at the door when she entered Richard and Hiromi's apartment, but as she stepped through the doorway she could hear water running and out-of-tune singing, so she must have been in the shower.<p>

Placing her backpack down carefully by the door, the young girl crept into the house. It was odd for her sister to be back this early; she would usually come in through the door at about seven, and it was six now, but…

Autumn's laptop was also sitting down on top of the coffee table, so she must have been here for a while. She won't normally take _that_ out without doing some stuff around the apartment first so that she doesn't give the impression of being lazy. She's such a hard worker…

Quietly, Aurora sat down on the couch, directly in front of her sister's laptop, and began to take her hair out of their ponytails. The dyed red hair was a little matted, mainly due to the misunderstanding that had taken place at the park earlier, when she had broken free from the foreign women and fallen flat on her face. She scrapped her knee, so that hurt a little, but at least Masaomi was able to get off without more than four slaps to the face when the situation was fully explained.

After her ponytails were taken down, the newly-turned eleven-year-old girl bent down and examined her knee. It wasn't that bad, just a little red, but it still stung when she cautiously poked at it… Darn…

**Ping!**

Startled, Aurora let her blue eyes wander upwards until they found the screen of her sister's laptop. Apparently, she was on a chat room of sorts, and she had received a new message. It was probably Lucy or Regina; Autumn that she had been keeping in touch with them ever since she moved to Japan, and had even said "hi" to her on their behalf from time to time.

The girl was about to tear her gaze away from the screen when she spotted the single word that took up Lucy's entire message's line.

"**Sorry.**"

And that one word seemed to pique her curiosity.

It may have made her seem a bit snoopy, but Aurora just couldn't turn away from the computer screen after this and scrolled further up the screen.

**Lucy: I still cant get over the fact that your living in **_**Japan**_** now!**

**Regina: Yeah its just 2 cool!**

**Autumn: Oh, lol, well, it's not too different from American cities if you ignore the fact that everyone speaks Japanese.**

**Autumn: But, yeah, it **_**is**_** pretty awesome.**

**Regina: I bet it is.**

**Lucy: Met any cute guys yet?**

Aurora understood instantly after reading that last line why Lucy had apologized. It couldn't have gone too well from there, considering how much Autumn freaks out whenever someone even so much as mentions the possibility of her dating another person. Whenever such a thing is suggested, she always reels back with a disgusted look on her face, as if the person she was talking to had asked her to rob a bank with them. And that's what dating was to Autumn back then: a horrible, inexcusable crime. Nobody that knew her well enough had to ask, either. It was an understandable, yet completely unnecessary fear that prevented her from dating anymore.

And that was yet another strange, complex thing about Autumn; she's a natural flirt, which conflicts greatly with her anti-dating policy. But it's not as if this makes a difference to Autumn, though, since she never even notices when she flirts. It's as if she's tricked herself into thinking that she can't possibly see anyone, even the cute guys that she automatically and unknowingly flirts with, in a romantic kind of way.

And because of this, when Aurora heard almost a month ago about how her sister took that Shizuo guy out to lunch, she found herself feeling kind of bad for the poor guy. There must have been no end to how many mixed signals she was sending in his direction. However, this was not what Hiromi and Richard seemed to be concerned about, as they were too mind-numbed at the fact that their niece ate lunch with Ikebukuro's supposedly strongest man and survived without any fatal or hospital-inducing injuries.

**Autumn: You know why I can't think about that right now, Lucy.**

That comment was over forty minutes ago. No wonder Autumn had gotten up and taken a shower.

Which brings up another question: Just how long had Autumn _been_ here? This chat section looked so long; it wouldn't be hard to imagine that she was here for well over two hours.

Another new line popped up on the screen suddenly, nearly startling Aurora. Her eyes darted to the message, but then back upwards as she tried her best to resist invading any more of her sister's privacy. None of this was any of her business, so she shouldn't be looking through her chat sessions with her friends as if she had every right in the world.

When another new line came up again, she just couldn't help herself any longer.

**Lucy: So what about that Izaya guy?**

**Regina: Yeah r u going to accept his job offer?**

Aurora froze at that moment, staring at the two lines numbly._ Job offer? _What was _this_ all about? Her sister had never mentioned any new possible job opportunities to her before, so it was odd to see the words laid out on the screen right in front of her. Why would Autumn keep this from her?

And then the name sunk in. _Izaya_. At the very sight of it, her blood began to run cold, and she could not help but shudder silently. The man reeked of trouble; that much she could tell since her last encounter with him.

It wasn't even four days after she had come to Japan when had Izaya sought her out, waiting just outside her school gates. At the sight of him, the young girl had been baffled, wondering why a strange twenty-something-year-old man was just standing by her school, and why he had waved upon the sight of her. She had looked in all directions around her, trying to see if there was anyone else that he may have been waving to, but no one else seemed to be paying the man any attention. It must have been her that he was waving to.

Instead of walking up to the man, however, Aurora sat down by the stairs at the school, obediently waiting for her sister to come, just as she had been told to. However, she kept her blue eyes focused on the young man at the gates, watching his every move as carefully as she could. She remembered him very well from their first day in Japan, and from what she could remember, Izaya did not come off as the most trustworthy type of person.

Only when most of the students had cleared out of the courtyard did he waltz up to the young school girl, as if he hadn't a care in the world, and promptly sat down on the stairs with her. As a response, Aurora looked at him and in all seriousness warned Izaya that if he tried anything, she would bite him. He only laughed and told her that he was there to talk, nothing more. When she had asked him why, he merely evaded the question smoothly, simply asking how things were going with her aunt and uncle.

It did not occur to the girl how a stranger that she had only met a few days ago shouldn't know about how she was living with her aunt and uncle. _"It's fine."_

Izaya had nodded at her answer, a small, undistinguishable, smile on his lips. "_So you're not worried that they're going to throw you and your sister out on the streets, then_?"

Aurora had looked up at him, slightly startled by the sudden question. "_Autumn says that family doesn't do that. Why would they_?"

Izaya answered her question with one of his own. "_Do you know what family _is_, Aurora_?"

"_Blood relations_," she answered him blandly. It was a simple question to her, one that could be answered without hesitation. Family, simply put, are people that you are related to by blood, or that are connected to you by marriage, such as Autumn, or her mother and father, and even Richard and Hiromi. It was just that simple, she though, only that simple. But, then-

"_Wrong_!" Izaya waved a finger up in the air and pointed at her, indicating that she was the one with the incorrect answer. "_I'm sure that is what most people may tell you, Aura-Chan,_" Aurora could only try to ignore the nickname, "_but I'm sure that a lot of other people would tell you that family are the people that love and care for you._" He sighed and stared down at her, amusement deep in his eyes despite his new frown. "_I thought that you would have gotten that right, considering that your sister comes off as the type of person to think in that kind of way_."

Yes, Autumn did seem like the kind of person with that type of thinking. She always was into cheesy stuff like that.

Aurora picked at one of her ponytails thoughtfully.

"_Aura-Chan, tell me_," Izaya leaned towards the young girl a little in curiosity, eager to hear what she had to say. "_If you were to think this way, then would you consider your aunt and uncle family_?"

Aurora turned her head in the young man's direction and, after a moment of deep thought, shook her head. "_I suppose not_," she confirmed for him, "_since they've never really been there for me_... _But if Autumn says they're family, then they're family_."

Izaya closed his eyes, nodding understandingly. "_Then what do you think about Noah and Elena_?"

The redheaded girl blinked with a blank expression on her face. "_Who_?" She had never heard the names before

One of his eyes opened, and the sun shone on it, reflecting a sort of reddish color as it did so. His strange smile only made the sight of him even more eerie. "_Your mother and father, of course_."

_Noah and Elena_. So those were their names. Aurora made sure to remember them, for her sister would never so much as utter them to her. She wanted to be able to know the names of her own parents.

"_Well, Autumn says that they were good people_," she told him. "_So I guess that they couldn't have been that bad_." Suddenly, something clicked in her mind. "_How do you know all of this stuff_?" She asked suspiciously. "_Autumn says that if a stranger knows too much stuff, then I should call the police because they might be a stalker_."

Izaya laughed at her remark. "_Oh, I'm not a stalker_," he told her, "_so don't worry about that. I just hear a lot of stuff from around the town; that's all_."

His explanation was odd, and he was probably lying, she knew that, and yet she didn't do anything about it. It didn't look like he was going to leave no matter what she did, but Autumn would probably chase him off when she showed up, anyway. Aurora simply chose to ignore him for the time being.

"_Hey, Aura-Chan_," Izaya's voice met her ears again after only a moment of silence. "_Why do you follow your sister's word so faithfully_?"

She didn't even bother to turn and look at him. "_What do you mean_?"

"_Well, you just seem to take everything she says to heart_," he explained. "_Like the stuff about your parents, and who you should and shouldn't consider family. You just seem a little _too_ loyal_."

Aurora frowned as she looked at her lap, playing with the skirt to her new school uniform. "_Well, she's always been there for me, even when no one else was_." She began quietly, thinking as hard as she possibly could about this. "_She's taken care of me since I was four, and even gave up her dreams of finishing school and going to college just so she could take care of me. I think I owe her that much, at least_."

"_So you love her a lot, then_?" He watched carefully as she nodded immediately after his question surfaced. He looked up at the sky as he asked his next question. "_Well, then, have ever considered that maybe you're parents have hurt Autumn_?"

And this question still haunted her. Aurora had done a lot of thinking after her encounter with Izaya that day, and came to a conclusion: yes, she did think that her parents caused Autumn pain, and a lot of it. Every time that their parents were so much as mentioned, Autumn would get teary-eyed and her lips would form into a tight, fake smile that she had forced upon herself to try and make it look like everything was alright. But it wasn't, not to Autumn. She loved their parents a lot, and so, after they died, it caused her a lot of pain.

Izaya had smiled at her after his question was met with silence. "_I don't think your sister knows nearly as much as you think she does, Aura-Chan_."

The younger girl had looked up at him, her clear blue eyes wide. "_You really think so_?"

"_I _know_ so_." His reddish brown eyes sparkled with mischief as he answered her. "_And you know what_?" He had asked, his smile lessening into a more dangerous, solemn look. "_You're also pretty serious for a kid you age_."

After that, he had gotten up and left. Five minutes later, Autumn had come and profusely apologized to her for being so late. She had gotten lost. She had panicked. She asked exactly twenty-six people for directions before finally making it back. She was really sorry. She hugged her little sister and told her how beautiful she was and how much she loved her.

Aurora hadn't said a word to her. She was still in deep thought.

She hadn't heard anything from Izaya since that day, but his words still hung in her mind, and a couple of days after their conversation, she talked to Autumn concerning what Izaya had told her. It didn't turn out very well, needless to say. She looked a little angry when she said that she did not consider Richard and Hiromi, or even their own parents, as a part of her family, but what could she say? Izaya had convinced her; it couldn't have been helped. _Autumn_ was the only one that ever loved and cared for her since she was about four. _Autumn_ was the one that she loved with all of her heart. _Autumn_ was her family, no one else.

That conversation with Izaya had opened her eyes to a whole new world, one where her sister was constantly overflowing with pain, and where her sister was the only family she truly had. And, quite frankly, she wished that door had stayed closed.

As she said before, Izaya reeked of trouble. He was simply no good. And she most definitely didn't want Autumn getting involved with him.

The singing from the bathroom stopped suddenly, and the water was shut off only a moment later. Aurora's head popped up into the air and turned in the direction the sound had stopped coming from. Hurriedly, she got off the couch, away from the open laptop, and headed towards the kitchen, busying herself by the fridge while Autumn came skipping into the living room, dripping wet and covered in only a white towel.

The young girl averted her eyes from her sister, looking into the fridge, as if she was searching for something in there. Autumn spotted her almost immediately, and smiled awkwardly. "Hey," she called over to her, "I hadn't noticed you came home. How was your day?"

Aurora looked over at her older sister. "Fine, I guess... I helped Masaomi hit on a couple of girls. They were about your age." She didn't need to mention that her "help" nearly got her taken into police custody in the end. She could just let that little detail slip for now.

Autumn sighed and shook her head with a faint smile on her lips. "That boy needs to get a girlfriend," she muttered. "I swear; one day's going to get into more trouble than he can handle if he keeps on flirting with all of these older women..." She walked over to her laptop and scanned the screen with her green eyes before typing something in quickly, careful not to let the water dripping from her hair fall onto the keyboard, and straightening up, holding onto her towel around herself tightly. "I'm gonna go get dressed. Be back in a minute."

The moment the door closed behind her, Aurora ran over to the computer screen and nearly felt her heart sink to her feet.

**Autumn: I just got off the phone with him a few hours ago. I accepted it.**

**Noel Note**

**So, yeah. **_**I**_** wouldn't put it past Masaomi to try using little girls as chick magnets. This was mainly my **_**attempt**_** at making a semi-humorous filler chapter, but it has a few parts that kind of explain how things have been going with everyone other than Autumn lately. Hopefully it was alright. I don't normally write humor, so I apologize if the first part didn't turn out too well.**

**Also, I'm not going to updating for a while on account that I'm going to be on vacation in Montana and Wyoming for the next two weeks, so my writing time will be limited for a while.**

**Quick Fact: I may or may not include the quartet of foreign (now mostly green-card wielding) OC's in later chapters if you liked them. It all depends on what you guys think. Also, I added the part about Lucy and Regina because Autumn needs some friends. She isn't exactly an outcast or anything (unlike her little sister), so she **_**does**_** have friends.**

**1*: "Hime" is an honorific meaning "princess."**

**2*: "Neesan" means "big sister." What Aurora was supposed to say was "Niisan," which means "big **_**brother**_**."**

**Your reviews were **_**amazing**_**: gwendolyn-sama; RandomCitizen; SmartGirl16; RachelWay; PaperGangsta**

**You're **_**amazing**_** for the alerts: SmartGirl16; RachelWay; BunnyRabbit95; Sumikai**

**You're **_**amazing**_** for the favorites: SmartGirl16; RachelWay; TykiPyon**

**Thanks a lot guys! Please, feel free to review and stuff. I'll see y'all next time!**

**~Noel-Chan**


	7. Noel Note

**I have very urgent news concerning this story and this account _as a whole_. Please see my profile page for details.**


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